Video card identification software: 16 Best Free Graphics Card Identifier Software For Windows

17 января, 2023

What Video Card Does My Computer Have?

Updated: 04/12/2021 by Computer Hope

Whether you’re looking to upgrade or are curious about your computer’s specifications, you may want to know what video card, or GPU, is in the computer. Some PCs have integrated graphics, and some have a video card. In either case, the instructions below help you determine and view the graphics device powering your computer’s video output. To proceed, choose your preferred method from the list below, or read all of the sections and proceed from there.

Tip

To determine how much video memory the video card has, see: How much memory does my video card have?

  • Device Manager
  • Third-party program
  • OEM lookup
  • At boot or POST
  • Open the computer
  • Debug routine (older computers)
  • Related information

Device Manager

One of the quickest ways to see what type of graphics processor is in your Windows computer is through the Windows Device Manager.

  1. Press the Windows key, type Device Manager, and then press Enter.
  2. In the window that appears, expand the Display adapters section.
  1. The GPU is listed under the Display adapters section. For example, the picture above shows a Radeon RX 580 Series video card is installed in the computer. In this example, only the model of the video card is listed. You’d have to know that Radeon is a brand of the ATI company.

Third-party program

There are many third-party programs that detect the video card in your computer. We recommend installing and using the CAM program by following the steps below.

  1. Open an Internet browser and go to the CAM page.
  2. In the middle of the screen, click the button.
  3. Once the download has finished, install it from your browser and open the program.
  • How to install software.
  • How to run a computer software program.
  1. You will see a window open that looks like the image below.
  1. From here, you can see which GPU your computer has in the middle section of the main screen. For example, the picture above shows a Radeon RX 580 Series video card, or GPU, is installed in the computer. In this example, only the model of the video card is listed. You’d have to know that Radeon is a brand of the ATI company.

Tip

Using a third-party program such as CAM not only lets you identify the video card but also measure important settings. As shown in the picture, the video card temperature, load, clock speed, and fan speed are also seen.

OEM lookup

If you have an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) computer (e.g., Dell, Hewlett Packard, etc.), locate the serial number or service tag number, and then look it up on the manufacturer’s website.

At boot or POST

Some computers may display the video card or chipset during the POST. Try rebooting the computer and as it is booting up, press the «Pause / Break» key to temporarily halt the computer’s boot process and read the text on the screen. If you are unfamiliar with video card manufacturers or chipsets, write down some of the company names you see and search our video card drivers section for that company.

Open the computer

Unplug everything from the back of the computer, open the case, and look for any visual identification printed on the video card or motherboard. Many times you can find the manufacturer’s name, model number, serial number, or other unique information that identifies the video card or video chipset you have. The picture below is an example of an older AGP video card (newer computers use PCIe).

  • How to open a computer case.

Tip

If your video card is on the motherboard, you can find the motherboard video chipset by identifying the motherboard make and model and reading the motherboard documentation.

  • How to find the type of computer motherboard.

FCC identification number

If you cannot locate a manufacturer or model number of the video card, but you see an FCC identification number, we recommend performing a search using it. Additional information about FCC numbers and how to search for information about them is on our FCC definition.

Debug routine (older computers)

Note

New versions of Windows no longer include the debug command. If you are running Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 10, this recommendation will not work.

  1. Open the Command Prompt.
  2. At the C:\> prompt, type the following command.
debug
  1. At the — prompt, type the following command:
d c000:0040
  1. After typing the command above, several lines of text similar to the following text appear.
C000:0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  . ...............
C000:0050 E9 63 7B 00 B4 10 49 27 - E9 FE 2B E9 F7 2B 50 4D  .c{...I'..+..+PM
C000:0060 49 44 58 00 5B 00 00 00 - 00 A0 00 B0 00 B8 00 C0  IDX.[...........
C000:0070 00 5B 53 54 42 20 6E 56 - 49 44 49 41 20 54 4E 54  .[STB nVIDIA TNT
C000:0080 20 76 65 72 2E 20 31 2E - 31 30 20 0D 0A 00 1B 43  ver. 1.10 ....C
C000:0090 6F 70 79 72 69 67 68 74 - 28 43 29 31 39 39 38 20  opyright(C)1998
C000:00A0 53 54 42 20 53 79 73 74 - 65 6D 73 20 49 6E 63 0D  STB Systems Inc.
C000:00B0 0A 00 22 6C 2C 0A 01 00 - C3 50 24 7F E8 60 36 58  .."1,....P$..'6

The example dump above gives you enough information to determine the make and the year of the video card. On line four in the above dump, you can see the make of this video card, which is nVIDIA TNT. If you were to search online, you would find that nVIDIA TNT is the Riva TNT graphics card chipset (VGA). In our example, line five is the video card version, and line six is the Copyright, which is the year the graphics card was manufactured.

  1. If you cannot capture any information that sounds like the video card, you can also type the following:
-d c000:0090

This command gives you a dump similar to the example above. However, it may have additional information about the video card.

Note

If the video card is onboard, you may get the motherboard name or chipset. If you have an onboard video card, get the video drivers for your chipset manufacturer. The video chipset drivers are available through the motherboard manufacturer.

  1. When you are ready to exit the debug prompt, type quit and press Enter to exit back to the MS-DOS prompt. If you want to close the MS-DOS window, type exit and press Enter.
  • My video card isn’t working.
  • How much memory does my video card have?
  • See our video card definition for further information and related links.
  • How to find what hardware is installed in the computer.
  • Video card help and support.

In Windows, how can I find out what chipset my video card is using
without opening the case?

In Windows, how can I find out what chipset my video card is using
without opening the case?

This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University. Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable.

Choose from the options below to verify the chipset of your video card
through the operating system:

  • Read the startup messages:

    Some video cards will identify themselves on-screen when your computer
    powers on. Restart your computer and pay close attention to the
    information on the screen while it boots. The start message may appear
    only briefly, and you may need to restart several times to gather the
    necessary information. Additionally, the chipset identity may not
    appear on every computer, or may not reveal any information beyond the
    brand and model.

  • Use Device Manager:

    In Windows, assuming the correct driver is installed, you
    can look in Device Manager and see the list under «Display
    Adapters». For more, see ARCHIVED: In Windows, what is the Device Manager, and how can I use it?

    Note: The list that appears may be inaccurate,
    since Device Manager receives information directly from the driver,
    not from the hardware’s BIOS. Also, it may be only superficially
    descriptive; for example, there are many different ATI Rage Pro
    variations, but «ATI Rage Pro» may be the only text you see in this
    list.

  • Check the Display Properties:

    In Windows 7:

    1. Right-click the desktop and select Personalize.
    2. In the lower-left corner, click Display.
    3. Click Change display settings, and then click
      Advanced settings.

    In Vista, right-click the desktop and select
    Personalize. Click Display Settings.

    In XP, right-click the desktop and select
    Properties. Click Settings.

    You may see the name of the card here. If you do, use that
    information to look up the specific chipset if it is not already
    identified. If you do not see the card name, click Advanced
    Settings or Advanced, and then click the
    Adapter tab. Note that these panels receive data from the
    driver rather than the hardware’s BIOS, so the information may be
    inaccurate.

  • Use the Direct X Diagnostic (DXDIAG) tool:

    Direct X comes with diagnostic tools that can identify the installed
    video card. To launch DXDIAG:

    1. In Windows 7 and Vista, click the Start button, type
      dxdiag in the search bar, and then press
      Enter.

      In XP, from the Start menu, select
      Run…. Type dxdiag and click OK.

    2. The DXDIAG panel will open. Click the Display tab.

    Your video card’s name and chipset will be identified in this
    panel. When you’re finished, click Exit to close the
    panel.

  • Install benchmarking or third-party diagnostic
    software:

    Programs that run performance or diagnostic tests must properly
    identify the hardware they’re testing. Many benchmarking and
    diagnostic programs are available on the web, and most of them should
    identify the video card somewhere in the results they produce.

  • Install a 3D game or game demo:

    Many graphics-intensive computer games have video card
    requirements. Commonly, these games will run diagnostic tests in their
    setup or configuration routines that clearly identify the video
    card. Many games even offer a free demo that you can download and use
    to perform this test. However, like some of the methods above, this
    method is subject to inaccuracies from misinstalled or incorrect
    drivers.

  • Use a manufacturer’s software or web site for identifying
    system configurations:

    Some manufacturers provide pages or small programs that attempt to
    determine the current hardware configuration of your computer. For
    example, on Dell’s Troubleshooting
    page, you can download an ActiveX applet that determines
    your current configuration. This can help you compare your current
    configuration to the original configuration, and determine what
    drivers you may need to download.

    Check your computer manufacturer’s web site for similar offerings.

This is document ahwa in the Knowledge Base.

Last modified on 2018-01-18 12:37:03.

How to find out what video card is installed on the computer?

Beginners
20.02.2017
alimugik
6 comments

Hello everyone! We continue to get acquainted with giblets of our iron friend and consider other components in detail in a series of notes on computer characteristics. If you have a direct question about how to find out which video card is on your computer, then I have been preparing for a long time and am ready to explain in as much detail as possible where to poke in order to identify your video card. In fact, the network is full of instructions on how to determine the video adapter, but they all repeat each other and do not contain practical experience — a dry theory that has been rewritten several times from each other . ..

Question “How can I see what video card I have?” occurs probably every computer user. Of course, this is not such an important parameter as the processor or RAM — the performance of the graphics card is not always relevant. For many users, the built-in (integrated) is enough, but there are also those who want to run android games on a computer — this is where it will come in handy to find out what kind of discrete monster you have and what it is capable of.

We are not interested in the manufacturer (be it Nvidia GeForce or AMD Radeon). The first task is to find out the details down to the used slot (connector) and the type of DDR memory used.

A very common situation — you need to find out what exactly is installed on the computer after reinstalling the operating system for the subsequent installation of drivers. — Briefly about the main thing

  • 1.1 How to see which video card is on the computer using standard tools
    • 1.1.1 Device Manager is our true friend
    • 1. 1.2 DirectX diagnostic tool as a way to determine the video card
  • 1.2 Which video card is on my computer? — We use third-party software
    • 1.2.1 Method 1. GPU-Z is one of the best graphics card detection programs
    • 1.2.2 Method 2. CPU-Z — designed for processors, but shows a video
    • 1.2.3 Method 3. AIDA64 — A monster in the world of software for identifying hardware
    • 1.2.4 Method 4. Piriform Speccy — a small program with great features
  • 2 Frankenstein video card or non-standard situations
  • 3 Postscript

    • How can I find out what video card is installed on my computer? – Briefly about the main thing

    Identifying a GPU is probably more difficult than any other device, which is why this question is so often of interest to users. The fact is that if we find out the processor as accurately as possible (or the same motherboard up to the revision), then this will not work with any video card.

    My PC can serve as an example — only the series of the line (HD 5800 Series) is displayed in the device manager, and the specific model (number) does not show (that is, it can be both 5850 and 5870), even native drivers will not show you the whole picture…

    Looking ahead, I’ll say that the AIDA64 program was able to accurately determine the video card on my computer — all the others showed only the series of the device, but if your goal is to install drivers, you don’t need more.

    I won’t write that you can get inside the system unit — this is stupid, everyone probably knows and is looking for an alternative way to find out your video card without opening the patient (especially if you have a laptop — it is unlikely that you will find an exhaustive answer there).

    In this note, we will use the utilities built into the system and third-party programs. All that you will see here are well-known methods for a long time and were launched on Windows 10, therefore everything is in order with compatibility (unfortunately, one of the programs did not start and I decided not to include it in our review at all)

    How to see which video card is on the computer using standard tools

    To the question “how to see what video card I have?” the operating system itself can answer without the use of third-party programs. Why do we need them? — if you can find out everything we need through the device manager or the DirectX Diagnostic Tool.

    Device manager is our true friend

    The device manager knows more about the computer than you do, it knows what video card is on my and your computer. Getting into it is very simple — go to «Control Panel — System and Security — System» and on the left side of the window click on «Device Manager». The Display Adapters section displays the required information.

    Quite often there are several of them — built-in and discrete (for example, Intel HD Graphics and Radeon some_digit). This is especially often observed in laptops, Intel is always built-in and we do not take it into account. However, if the goal of finding out the video card is to install drivers, then I recommend downloading a specialized edition from the official website for your laptop

    Unfortunately, the task manager will not tell us all the details (for example, the amount of memory) . .. in fact, only the hard-wired name of your video is displayed here and that’s it. Well, let’s move on!

    DirectX Diagnostic Tool as a way to identify the graphics card

    The next way to identify the graphics processor (aka GPU) on your computer is the familiar «DirectX Diagnostic Tool». I don’t see much point in talking in detail about this system utility, we are only interested in the opportunity to find out the model of the graphics adapter in this way.

    We call the “Run” window with the key combination “WIN + R”, enter the command dxdiag and click OK.

    The “DirectX Diagnostic Tools” window will open, go to the “Monitor” tab and in the NAME line in the Device block, our video card is displayed. But as you can see, only the line of graphics cards to which your video adapter belongs is shown.

    You can safely ignore the line “Total memory”, these figures have nothing to do with the actual amount of video memory and in all my practice I have never seen them coincide with reality.

    What video card is on my computer? – We use third-party software

    There are actually many more standard ways to determine the graphics manufacturer, but they all show approximate information. That is why it is preferable to use third-party software (which mostly has portable versions and does not require installation) to view detailed specifications about your adapter.

    Method 1: GPU-Z is one of the best graphics card detection programs

    The most detailed information about the GPU will be shown to us by a small and free program with the telling name GPU-Z. You can download it from the official site (you always download programs only from official sources?)

    https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

    Pay attention to the “Name” line — this is the name of our video card. What else can be useful? — Opposite Directx Support, you can find out which version of DirectX your video card supports, and Memory Size will tell you about the size of the graphics memory.

    This program probably provides a lot of information, and most users will find it useless, but that is until they meet the werewolf video card, which I will tell you about at the end of the note.

    You don’t think that you, like me, will only display the graphics adapter series, it’s quite possible that you will have the correct name both in standard methods and in all third-party applications (in fact, I’m glad that for example, I had such a “problem” video adapter, because now I’m sure that you will definitely get to the bottom of the truth)

    Method 2. CPU-Z — created for processors, but shows a video

    The next program that allows you to find out which video card is on my computer is CPU-Z. Surely many are familiar with it, but not everyone knows that it is suitable not only for finding out the processor installed in your system. The program is free and does not require installation on a computer.

    http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z. html

    We launch the application, go to the “Graphics” tab and in the “Name” line there is a sewn-in name in the BIOS of your video card (well, or mine in case of viewing screenshot), in the “Memory” block, the “Size” line contains information about the amount of memory of the graphics adapter.

    In fact, CPU-Z gives just a huge amount of useful information about the computer, as you can say now — without water … of course, there are situations in which a more detailed report on the installed equipment is required, but for our tasks this small program is enough with extravagant.

    Method 3. AIDA64 — A monster in the world of software for identifying hardware

    Now let’s move on to my favorite utility — AIDA64. Your question “how to find out which video card is on your computer” will seem ridiculous to her, because she knows absolutely everything about your computer. Of course, this application costs money, but there is a trial version, which we will use:

    https://www. aida64.com/downloads

    After launch, go to «Display — GPU» and in the line «Device Description» we see the name (!full) Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 — which is a 100% accurate answer to question raised in this post. I recommend that you familiarize yourself with AIDA64 in more detail and get to know your computer better (do not think anything bad, you just need to know what is inside your faithful friend.)

    If you have previously used the Everest program for these purposes and now you cannot find it anywhere — know that the former Everest is the new AIDA64…

    Method 4. Piriform Speccy — a small program with great features

    I think everyone is familiar with such an application as Ccleaner, which helps at least a little, but bring data on the computer and remove gigabytes of unnecessary garbage. Why am I? — they have another Speccy program that can tell a lot about your iron wood … friend. As always, we go to the official website to download

    http://www. piriform.com/Speccy

    The question “how to see which video card is on the computer” will be answered by the “Graphics devices” item in the “Model” line. Piriform Speccy shows much more useful information than just what video card is in a computer or laptop, but considering the topic of the article, we don’t need more .. if it gets distracted, then I will never finish the note.

    Piriform Speccy is a paid program, but it is possible to use it for some time for free or use the free version — it is not necessary to fork out for our tasks with you

    Frankenstein video card or non-standard situations

    This note on how to determine the GPU would be incomplete , if we keep silent about Chinese online stores and various sites like Aliexpress. So, there you can often find various offers to buy a game card for a modest amount (a similar one in Russia can cost much more).

    I thought for a long time how to tell you better about this and found a very suitable video on YouTube . ..

    For those who do not like to watch videos (and there are some like me) in a nutshell I tell the situation with the problem of identifying a video card. You buy like the author of the video (Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 is a good option even by today’s standards). All the programs described above identified it correctly and there can be no doubt about its authenticity (even smart people who say — look what is written on the video can not make any claims against it).

    However, comparing the performance with the reference GTX 950 (which is supposedly weaker and lower in the Nvidia product line), we found out that the Chinese GTX960 lost in all respects, which gives us reason to believe that we have been tricked somewhere. (by the way, if you are interested in how performance was measured, then read the article about programs for showing FPS in games) any other card. In general, it takes a very long time to paint — I recommend that you look for yourself, everything is described in detail there … if there are questions about this, I will always answer in the comments.

    Postscript

    Well, friends, it’s time to sum up and draw conclusions … we learned many different ways to find out which video card is on the computer, used options both with the involvement of third-party programs and used the functions built into the system.

    I think a small offtopic and a story about non-standard situations was useful for you — this rarely happens and in my practice I met with such a video card only once and for a long time, but I think everyone should know about it.

    Well, that’s all for today, find out what kind of graphics you have for health without disassembling the computer — if you have questions (although from where — I painted it in such detail), then I’m waiting in the comments. All the best!

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    GPU-Z 0.1.6 — a utility for identifying the main parameters of modern video cards

    Edition

    Software News QNX

    recommendations

    A new version of a small utility called GPU-Z from a well-known news resource has been released.
    techPowerUp!. The program has a similar name to the well-known CPU-Z utility, but is designed to display detailed information about the graphics processor of a video card. The user can view data about the chip, its revision, the number of various auxiliary «processors», memory size and other characteristics. The utility also has a built-in system for fixing the result using its own website. Through the validation tab, you can send your overclocking result with comments. In addition, there are options for uploading and saving the BIOS of a video card or sending it to an online database. Recently, screenshots of this program began to appear in some reviews and news feeds of sites as confirmation.


    Changes this time:

    • Added a tab with parameters for monitoring the frequencies and temperature of the video card
    • Fixed problems with detection of CrossFire technology in Vista environment
    • It is now possible to take a screenshot correctly on Windows 2000
    • Update interval changed to one week
    • Added a link to the test builds forum on the result check page
    • Removed various naming conventions for GPU graphics cards manufactured by ATI and nVIDIA
    • added several new chips RV610, RV630, R600 to database
    • extended support for future video cards
    • fixed pipeline count on modified RV430 video card
    • Added the ability to determine the number of ROPs/shaders for RV620, RV635 chips and future versions
    • Fixed problems with memory bus detection on video card with GPU R200
    • Improved BIOS reading system to support older graphics cards
    • Added definition for G80, G92, G94, G92 family chips M
    • fixed incorrect temperature detection on ADT7473 sensor
    • added information about die sizes for ATI and NVIDIA

      • chips

    • Added support for bus detection on NV10 GPU
    • fixed bus detection issues on NV44 GPU
    • fixed number of ROPs/shaders for NV41, NV42, NV43, G70, G71, G73 chips
    • Added support for i740 and GM45 system logic
    • DDR memory information is now displayed correctly for i865G-based motherboards
    • Improved support for video cards with multiple GPUs
    • Reduced HP vendor name display (
      more
      )


    You can download the program from our file archive:

    • GPU-Z 0.