How To Find Out What Race You Are

Want to play the latest games, but aren't sure if your PC can handle them? Graphics are a huge part of the PC gaming experience, but non every computer is built for the best games on the market. Y'all'll need to know what graphics menu yous accept installed and compare that to the minimum requirements for the game you want to play. Here's how to figure it out.

What's a Graphics Card?

When you turn on your estimator, the images that appear on screen—whether it'south a simple Word document or a circuitous 4K gaming feel—are generated past a graphics processing unit (or GPU). These chips can range from simple "integrated graphics," which are part of the motherboard or processor, to larger, more powerful expansion cards.

These expansion cards—often called "discrete" or "dedicated" graphics cards—tin can usually perform more than powerful tasks than integrated graphics, like better 3D gaming, accelerated video rendering, or even certain non-graphical jobs similar mining bitcoin. This extra utility comes at the expense of higher power usage, more than heat, and more space in your computer, which is why you lot'll rarely find defended graphics cards in ultra-thin laptops.

But like any other computer component, graphics cards can go outdated over time. The carte du jour you bought in 2012 is unlikely to play 2022'due south AAA games at high settings, and then if you're e'er unsure whether a game will run on your PC, yous'll desire to compare its minimum or recommended requirements to the hardware you currently have.

Knowing what graphics menu yous have tin can be confusing, since there are two relevant model numbers: the model of the GPU (the actual flake that does the work), and the model of the carte du jour itself (which includes other hardware like the cooler, voltage regulation module, and and then on).

In that location are two primary discrete GPU manufacturers today: Nvidia and AMD. There are many other manufacturers, nevertheless, making the cards themselves—Asus, EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte—and other companies can produce graphics cards using chips from Nvidia and AMD, adding their ain tweaks to fix themselves apart from each other. One manufacturer's version may have better fans than some other, may come overclocked from the factory, or take a better warranty.

Then when you lot're looking upwards what graphics card you accept, you'll need to make up one's mind whether knowing the chipset is enough (for case, the "Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060") or whether you lot need the bodily manufacturer and model of your card (such as the "EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 Superclocked," which uses Nvidia's chipset). The erstwhile is very piece of cake to find in Windows, while the latter is a bit more complicated.

Find Out What GPU You Have in Windows

In your PC's Showtime carte du jour, type "Device Director," and press Enter to launch the Command Console's Device Manager. Click the drop-down arrow next to Display adapters, and information technology should listing your GPU right there. (In the screenshot beneath, you tin can meet that I take a Radeon RX 580.)

If you aren't sure which company designed that chip, you lot can right-click on it and cull Properties to see the manufacturer—in my case, Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD. (Annotation that Device Manager uses your graphics drivers to determine what GPU you lot take, and then if you lot doubtable the wrong drivers may be installed, you lot should skip to the next section.)

In one case you have the GPU name, you lot tin can Google effectually to larn more about it, or compare information technology to the minimum requirements on the game y'all want to play. Usually, a higher number denotes a better menu—and then a game that requires an RX 580 may not run on an RX 480, which is less powerful (though there are sometimes ways effectually that).

Recommended by Our Editors

If you're comparison two cards that apply different naming schemes—similar AMD'due south RX 580 and the more powerful RX Vega 56—yous may accept to practice a lilliputian enquiry to come across which card is more than powerful, and what the difference in price is.

Find the Manufacturer and Model Number

If, for some reason, you demand to knowexactly what model video card you have, you'll take to do a bit more than work. The manufacturer is easy enough to find with a third-party app called Speccy. Download the costless version, offset it up, and click the Graphics option in the sidebar. Scroll down and wait for the Subvendor entry, which should tell you who made the bodily card in your PC—in my case, Asus made this item RX 580. (You'll also be able to meet how much video RAM your card has, among other specs.)

Unfortunately, this won't tell you the exact model number, which yous'll need for, say, warranty claims. (Asus makes a few different RX 580 cards, and they'll need the exact model number to provide support.) For that, you'll need to either search your email for the receipt (if yous bought the card online) or open your PC upward.

In this case, find the graphics card, remove it, and wait at the sticker on the side—information technology should accept the model number you need. Yous may want to write this information down somewhere and then you lot don't need to crack your PC open next time—you never know when you lot might demand it!

Like What Y'all're Reading?

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Utilize and Privacy Policy. Y'all may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.