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I know of many ways to get a rough idea of my graphics card model. Here are two examples (instructions for Windows 7):

Method 1

1) Click start

2) Type dxdiag and press enter

3) Go to the Display tab and check the Name property.

Method 2

1) Click start

2) Right click on Computer and select Properties

3) Click on Device Manager

4) Expand the Display adapters to get a list of video cards

Problems

Unfortunately both these methods suffer from problems:

1) This is a very inaccurate measure. For example, if I have an ATI Radeon 4830, both methods will show that I have an ATI Radeon 4800 series i.e. there is no way to distinguish between different models within the 4800 series or any other series for that matter.

2) This is dependent on having the correct driver installed. If I have an incorrect driver installed, there is no way for me to find out what the correct driver should be.

Question

Is there any way for me to be able to determine the exact model of a graphics card without relying on having the correct driver installed. I realise there are ways to do this such as checking the documentation that comes with the computer or perhaps opening it up but I am interested in seeing if there is way of doing this with software.

Edit: Please note the requirements carefully. If the method relies on reading from the driver then it is ineligible.

If there is no program that can do this, is there a manual method? Some kind of website database etc?

Thanks!

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  • 2
    Looks like duplicate of superuser.com/questions/184803
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Sep 5, 2010 at 12:25
  • 2
    Yeah I saw that question but felt it had different requirements from mine. Specifically, I am looking for greater accuracy as well as removing the driver dependency.
    – Rupert Madden-Abbott
    Commented Sep 5, 2010 at 12:33
  • 1
    In that question, there are no drivers too. You can't get more specific than device ID. Also, if you are responding to comment, use the @username notation. This the other user will get notified of the response.
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Sep 5, 2010 at 12:51
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    @AndrejaKo Thanks for the tip! Didn't know about that. The other question did mention drivers but not accuracy. An answer talked about device IDs but I am interested in all the possible ways and felt that since the other question did not specify, that there might be other methods out that which did not get mentioned.
    – Rupert Madden-Abbott
    Commented Sep 5, 2010 at 12:57
  • dxdiag and "device manager" both show "Microsoft Basic Display adapter" if you don't have any drivers installed, FWIW...though dxdiag does show "NVidia" at least :)
    – rogerdpack
    Commented Jun 8 at 23:11

8 Answers 8

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I use Speccy. Its an awesome little free tool that give you all kinds of information about your system. It has a really nice UI, and you can download a portable version so you can run it without installing.

Its made by the same people as CCleaner, website here.

Two or three years later, when it comes time to upgrade your computer, that tag or sticker may be long gone. Speccy was designed as a free electronic "what's inside" sticker for your PC.

alt text

Hope that helps.

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  • Speccy didn't show me the exact model unfortunately, when some of the other answers do...
    – rogerdpack
    Commented Jun 9 at 5:46
5

TechPowerup's freeware GPU-Z works for me.

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  • This works if you have some driver installed already...but not if yours just shows "Microsoft Basic Display adapter" FWIW :)
    – rogerdpack
    Commented Jun 8 at 23:13
  • If you do have a semi-generic driver version like "AMD 7900 series" you can click on the "lookup" button and it seems to show you the exact model you have, FWIW...
    – rogerdpack
    Commented Jun 9 at 5:35
3

SIW or System Information for Windows provides more info on system, hardware and drivers than I know what to do with so may be what you need.

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2

Have you tried Start-->Run-->dxdiag? It's an old school directx diagnostic tool, that is installed on most computers...

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  • 2
    But it relies on drivers installed. If drivers are incorrect, DxDiag will provide incorrect information.
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 9:43
  • True. But doesn't the drivers often automatically install the correct drivers?
    – Hornbech
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 9:51
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    No. Often incorrect drivers can be installed. This is especially true on laptops. Also same driver can often work on entire generation of hardware. I have nVidia GeForce 9500M GS. It works "fine" with drivers for any other GeForce card. Also my GeForce 6600 has no problems with 6800 drivers. Furthermore what are you going to do if you actually have no idea which card you have installed and Windows just gives you Generic VGA?
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 10:07
  • It does say if it's NVidia or not, even without drivers installed, FWIW...
    – rogerdpack
    Commented Jun 8 at 23:15
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I´m using a little tool called Everest. It isnt free but is has got a trial version and it displays the installed hardware, not the drivers ore something else.

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1
  • For those that didn't knew, Everest is now AIDA64.
    – Lemon
    Commented Apr 6, 2019 at 10:56
0

I use Glary Utilities to check system information. It comes as a free diagnostic tool and it's generally used to keep the computer free of errors and running smoothly through several cleaning methods. But you can also find a "System Status" menu where you can find all the system information you are looking for, and you can even save a report as a text file ->

enter image description here

It's not a heavy program since you may also find the portable version ->

http://download.cnet.com/Glary-Utilities-Portable/3000-18512_4-75450651.html

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0

Open an admin Powershell and type: 

(Get-CimInstance -ClassName CIM_VideoController).Name

# Output:  (there are two video cards)
# Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
# NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M
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  • Not really a solution to the question, that requires to work without installed driver. Your PowerShell command only shows the device description you would also see in the details tab of the Windows Device Manager properties (here: "DisplayLink USB Device"). In the Device Manager tree i see "USB3.0 UHD HDMI Adapter".
    – Furty
    Commented May 2, 2020 at 19:19
  • @Furty If you leave out the .Name part, you get all the other info. Op asked for a "rough idea" and this is as good as you get from Windows only, and without having access to other tools.
    – not2qubit
    Commented May 4, 2020 at 4:17
  • Thanks for the reply, other tools were not forbidden but "If the method relies on reading from the driver then it is ineligible." - thus i suggest to add without .Name as a 2nd command, so the PNPDeviceID can be googled.
    – Furty
    Commented May 4, 2020 at 6:01
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If you lookup the vendor/dev using https://superuser.com/a/619427/39364 or https://superuser.com/a/184804/39364 then google that or look it up, it will show you the exact model, with generic drivers installed (like "AMD 7900 series") or with no drivers installed.

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