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 demanding PC games. Most mod PCs have graphics processing units (GPUs) made by Intel, NVIDIA, or AMD, but remembering which model you accept installed tin can exist hard.

While your computer'southward CPU and RAM are also important, the GPU is usually the almost disquisitional component when it comes to playing PC games. If you don't have a powerful plenty GPU, you can't play newer PC games—or yous may have 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'due south how to encounter what graphics hardware is in your Windows PC.

On Windows ten, you lot can check your GPU information and usage details right from the Task Manager. Right-click the taskbar from the lesser of your screen and select "Task Manager" or press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the task manager.

Option to open Task Manager from Windows 10's taskbar

On Windows xi, y'all tin also press Ctrl+Shift+Esc or correct-click the Start push button and cull "Task Manager."

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

You'll also see other information, such as the corporeality of defended memory on your GPU, in this window. Windows 10's Task Manager displays your GPU usage here, and you can also view GPU usage by application.

If your arrangement has multiple GPUs, you'll likewise see "GPU ane" then on here. Each represents a different concrete GPU.

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

On older versions of Windows, such every bit Windows 7, you tin can find this data in the DirectX Diagnostic Tool. To open information technology, press Windows+R, blazon "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 also listed hither.

DirectX Diagnostic Tool showing name of computer's graphics card

If you have multiple GPUs in your system—for instance, as in a laptop with a low-power Intel GPU for utilize on bombardment power and a high-power NVIDIA GPU for utilise while plugged in and gaming—you can control which GPU a game uses from Windows ten'due south Settings app. These controls are also congenital into the NVIDIA Control Panel.

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

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