How do I know what computer video card I have?

How do I know what computer video card I have?

Answer

Method One

Many versions of Microsoft Windows will automatically detect and install your video card. Assuming no video issues currently exist with the video card you can determine the video card under display adapters in Device Manager as shown in the picture to the right.

As can be seen in the picture this computer has two video cards and are labeled as NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX, which is the manufacturer and model of the video card.

If you right-click the video card and click Properties you'll get a window like the properties window also shown in this picture. As can be seen the location of this video card is PCI Slot 2. Which is helpful for when you wish to know the bus the video card is.

Note: If you are experiencing video issues or the video card is being detected as a "Standard VGA" adapter it is likely what Microsoft Windows is not detecting the video card and if you need to determine the video card for drivers you will need to try the next step.

Method Two

Download one of the third-party programs for detecting computer hardware. These utilities can be used to help identify and list all of the hardware found in your computer.

Method Three

Many video cards and chipsets will list the video card and memory during the POST. Try rebooting the computer and as it is first booting 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 / chipsets write down some of the company names you see and search our video card driver section for that company. 

Method Four

The below steps require that the user first get to a MS-DOS prompt or Windows command line.

At the C:\> prompt type the below commands.

debug <press enter>

At the - prompt type the below command.

d c000:0040

After typing the above command you should receive several lines of text similar to:

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$..'6X

As you can pick out in the above dump this gives you enough information to determine the make and the year made on the video card. On line 4 you can see the make of this video card, which in this case is a nVIDIA TNT, which would be the Riva TNT chipset. The next line you notice the version of the card and finally the line thereafter is the copyright or the year manufactured generally.

If you are unable to capture any information that sounds like the video card you can also type

-d c000:0090

The above line will give you a dump similar to the above example however 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 you should get the video drivers for your chipset. Commonly the video drivers / chipset drivers are available through the motherboard manufacturer.

Once you're ready to exit the debug prompt type quit to exit back to the MS-DOS prompt. If you wish to close the MS-DOS window type exit.

Method Five

Unplug everything from the back of the computer and open the computer and look for any visual identification directly off of the video card or motherboard. Many times you can find the manufacturer name, model, serial number, or other unique identifications that can be used to identify the video card or video chipset you have.

Method Six

If you are unable to locate a manufacturer or model number of the video card but see an FCC identification number it's recommended that you perform a FCC search using that number. Additional information about FCC numbers and how to search for information about a FCC number can be found on our  FCC dictionary definition page.