▷ How to know the data of my graphics card

The graphics card is one of the most important components of a PC, since it is in charge of processing all the images we see on the screen in real time. Having a good performance drive is essential for users who need a lot of graphics processing power. In this tutorial we will show you how you can know the characteristics of the graphics card.

Ready to know the characteristics of the graphics card that you have installed on your computer?

Index of contents

What is the graphics card

A graphics card or video card (also called a display card, graphics card, display adapter, or graphics adapter) is an expansion card that generates output images to a screen. These are often advertised as discrete or dedicated graphics cards, emphasizing the distinction between these and integrated graphics. At the core of both is the graphics processing unit (GPU), which is the main part that does the actual calculations, but it should not be confused with the video card as a whole, although "GPU" is often used to refer to to video cards.

We recommend reading our post on How to change the user password in Linux

Most video cards are not limited to single display output. Its integrated graphics processor can perform additional processing, eliminating this task from the core processor. For example, cards produced by Nvidia and AMD process OpenGL and DirectX graphics at the hardware level. In the late 2010s, there was also a trend to use the graphics processor's computing capabilities to solve non-graphics tasks. Typically, the graphics card is made in the form of a printed circuit board (expansion card) and inserted into an expansion slot, universal or specialized.

3dfx Interactive was one of the first companies to develop a GPU with 3D acceleration with the Voodoo series, and the first to develop a graphics chipset dedicated to 3D, but without 2D support, which required the presence of a 2D card to function. Now, most modern graphics cards are compiled with AMD or Nvidia graphics chips.

Until 2000 3dfx Interactive was also a major manufacturer, and often a pioneer. Most video cards offer various functions, such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2 / MPEG-4 decoding, TV-out, or the ability to connect multiple monitors. Graphics cards also have sound card capabilities to output sound, along with video for connected televisions or monitors with built-in speakers.

How the specifications of the graphics card I have on my PC

Knowing the specifications of the graphics card is the first step we must take to know if it will be able to meet our needs. To know the specifications of our graphics card we can use a very simple and totally free program. It is a GPU-Z that we have already talked about on some occasions. This program can be downloaded completely free of charge from the techpowerup website, its use does not require installation.

Once we run the application, it will detect our graphics card and detail all of its most important features, below we summarize the data to be checked:

Card model: it is the graphics card that we have installed. Graphics Core - Determines the GPU that mounts the graphics card. Shaders: they are the nuclei in charge of doing the calculations, the higher their number the more powerful the card will be. ROPs and TMUs: They are the units in charge of applying textures and filters. Amount of memory: memory that the card has. Memory interface: memory connection interface with the GPU. Memory bandwidth: amount of information that can carry per second. GPU clock - The base clock frequency of the GPU. Boost - GPU accelerated clock rate. Memory Clock: base memory clock frequency.

GPU-Z also allows us to monitor some parameters of the graphics card such as its temperature, its power consumption, memory usage, the frequency at which it works in a real gaming environment and the speed of the fan, all these data they are important to check that it works correctly. The application also informs us about technologies such as CUDA, SLI, CrossFire, FreeSync, PhysX, OpenCL and Direct Comput e, which are present in most of the current card models. We highlight that AMD and Nvidia graphics cards differ in their characteristics, so that we will not always find exactly the same technologies in one and the other.

Knowing the operating temperature and the speed of the fan can be very useful, in case it overheats we can accelerate the fan to reduce the temperature, and in case it is very low we can lower its speed to make it more silent. In general, it is recommended that the card does not exceed 80ºC.

How to know the data of my graphics card from Windows

Another way to know the specifications of the graphics card is to look at the manufacturer's website, although for this we will first have to find out what card we have. We can do this from the Windows Device Manager, or by looking directly at the graphics card, for example, on this AMD RX VEGA 56 it is quickly identified with a sticker.

Once we know what our graphics card is, we can search for it on the official website of AMD or Nvidia. In this case we will find a lot of very detailed information. In this way we can find even more information than what programs like GPU-Z offer us, although as we have seen the process is somewhat more laborious.