Wondering how to check your graphics card on Windows? We’ve got you covered with what you need to know about what’s inside your PC.
Checking out your PC‘s specs is a good thing to do, as it will determine what games you can run. One of the most important parts of any PC build is your graphics card. A graphics card or GPU is one of the main factors that will determine if you can run a game or not.
Don’t feel any shame in wanting to know how to check your graphics card, because, between brands and numerical systems, it can get pretty confusing. Luckily, all you’ll need to do is follow these simple instructions to check exactly what GPU you have inside your system. This method will work on any Windows PC, so don’t worry about what version of the OS you are running.
How to check graphics card
Device Manager
- Type “Device Manager” in your search bar and open the application.
- Click the “Display adapters” dropdown menu.
- In this menu, you will see your display adapter or graphics card.
It’s really simple to check what graphics card you have. Usually, it will either be an AMD, Nvidia, or Intel graphics card. If you’re running a laptop, you may see something like “Intel Integrated Graphics” – This just means that your system is not running a dedicated GPU, and is most likely not up to the task of running modern games at high resolutions. If you need to pick up a new GPU for yourself, be sure to check out the best graphics cards.
Task Manager
- Open up Task Manager using CTRL + Shift + ESC
- Navigate to the “Performance” tab
- Click “GPU 0”
- On the right-hand side of the screen, the make and model of your graphics card will be shown
Task Manager is the easiest way to check your graphics card in Windows. However, you will not get much other information aside from the model of your GPU.
How to check graphics card driver
If you’re having issues with your graphics card driver, you might need to update it. But, don’t worry, we’ll walk you through the process of checking how up-to-date your graphics card drivers are.
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- Type “Device Manager” in your search bar and open it.
- Click the “Display adapters” dropdown menu
- Right-click on your GPU and select “Properties”
- Navigate to the “Driver” tab
In the “Driver” tab under your graphics card properties, you will be able to view your driver version, in addition to the date it was issued. If your graphics driver is months or years out of date, you’ll probably want to update it in order to get the best compatibility in games.
How to update your graphics card driver
If you have found via the above method that your graphics card driver needs to be updated, all you need to do is to open up Device Manager again, and select “Update Driver”. In most cases, Windows will automatically find it for you. If you have an Nvidia or AMD GPU, seek out their websites for the most up-to-date drivers.