Gamer's hands on a PC keyboard
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All computers have graphics hardware that handles everything from displaying your desktop and decoding videos to rendering enervating PC games. Near mod PCs accept graphics processing units (GPUs) fabricated by Intel, NVIDIA, or AMD, but remembering which model you have installed can be hard.

While your estimator's CPU and RAM are also of import, the GPU is usually the nearly critical component when it comes to playing PC games. If you don't have a powerful enough GPU, you tin can't play newer PC games—or you lot may accept to play them with lower graphical settings.

Some computers have low-power "onboard" or "integrated" graphics, while others have powerful "dedicated" or "discrete" graphics cards (sometimes called video cards.) Here's how to come across what graphics hardware is in your Windows PC.

On Windows 10, you lot can cheque your GPU data and usage details right from the Task Director. Correct-click the taskbar from the bottom of your screen and select "Chore Manager" or press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the task manager.

Option to open Task Manager from Windows 10's taskbar

On Windows 11, you can also press Ctrl+Shift+Esc or right-click the Start button and choose "Chore Manager."

From there, select the "Performance" tab at the top of the window—if you don't see the tabs, click "More than Details." Choose "GPU 0" in the sidebar. The GPU's manufacturer and model name are displayed in the top-right corner of the window.

You'll besides meet other information, such equally the amount of dedicated retentivity on your GPU, in this window. Windows 10's Task Managing director displays your GPU usage here, and you tin as well view GPU usage by application.

If your arrangement has multiple GPUs, y'all'll likewise see "GPU 1" and so on here. Each represents a dissimilar physical GPU.

Name of computer's GPU shown in Windows 10's Task Manager

On older versions of Windows, such as Windows 7, you tin notice this information in the DirectX Diagnostic Tool. To open it, printing Windows+R, type "dxdiag" into the Run dialog that appears, and press Enter.

Launching dxdiag from Windows 10's Run dialog

Click the "Display" tab and await at the "Name" field in the "Device" section. Other statistics, such as the amount of video memory (VRAM) built into your GPU, are likewise listed hither.

DirectX Diagnostic Tool showing name of computer's graphics card

If you accept multiple GPUs in your system—for example, as in a laptop with a low-ability Intel GPU for use on battery power and a high-ability NVIDIA GPU for utilize while plugged in and gaming—you can control which GPU a game uses from Windows x's Settings app. These controls are as well built into the NVIDIA Control Console.

RELATED: How to Monitor GPU Usage in the Windows Task Manager

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