How Do I Find Out What Kind Of Video Card My Computer Has?

The primary reason for finding out just what kind of video card / graphics card our computer uses is usually because we need to find out if they’re powerful enough to run the latest graphics-intensive video games or video editing programs which usually come with rather demanding requirements where video cards are concerned. As video games continue to evolve and continue to pump more and more polygons and require more power, you’ll find that upgrading your graphics card is a must.

Fortunately newer computers, and even notebooks, from reputable computer dealers such as Dell and Alienware, come equipped with great ATi Radeon or nVidia GeForce video cards that can usually handle anything you throw at them; they also come with a somewhat hefty price tag but at least it’s your decision as to just how much power you’re willing to pay for.

Anyway, in order to find out just what kind of video card your computer has, we need to navigate to the Display Settings area of our PC. Click the Start button and go to Control Panel. After doing so, make sure you have the default Windows Vista view selected, as opposed to the alternate Classic Windows XP View, and underneath the Appearance and Personalization heading, select Adjust screen resolution.

You should now be presented with a brand new window informing you of what kind of video card you have installed, as well as what resolution you might be using.

At a glance, you can see that I currently have a very respectable nVidia GeForce Go 8600M GT installed on this notebook and for those of you who might be curious: I’m using a screen resolution of 1680 by 1050 pixels for my 15.4″ UltraSharp Widescreen WSXGA+ TFT screen with TrueLife technology. However, you can’t learn a whole lot else about your video card from here unless you bring up the Advanced Settings window.

You should now be looking at a much, much more detailed screen which contains a wealth of essential information about your computer’s graphics card. In fact, just by taking a quick look around this screen, not only will you find out just which video card you’re using, but you can find out just how much graphics memory your video card holds and the BIOS information, too.