How to check graphic card on your laptop

Laptops are versatile, and besides being great portable work solutions, they can also double up as great gaming machines if you have the right specifications. However, there is one key component that is the heart of gaming laptops or desktops – the graphics card, also known as the GPU.

Believe it or not, if you’re trying to find out if your gaming laptop or desktop can run a game, the first component you have to put against the minimum requirements is the graphics card. Now if you’re someone who has meticulously built their own gaming rig, you probably know exactly which graphics card your system has.

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However, if you’re someone who isn’t very well-versed with the internal components of your gaming laptop or desktop, and want to figure out which graphics card your laptop has, here are a couple of ways to do the same.

How to check which graphics card your laptop has using Task Manager

On any Windows laptop or desktop, simply hit Ctrl+Shift+Esc and you should see the Task Manager window. You should also see a few tabs inside this window which will be laid of vertically on the left (on the top if you’re on Windows 10 or older).

Head to the ‘Performance’ tab and you should see how much of your system resources are being used in real-time. Towards the end of the component list, you should find the name of your graphics card, and you will also be able to monitor how much of your GPU is being used from here. If you see two columns for GPU here, it means your gaming laptop has a dual-GPU architecture.

How to check which graphics card your laptop has using System Properties

You can also check which graphics card you have by simply heading to the System Properties page. Simply press the Start button to pull up the Start Menu. Type in “This PC” and when the shortcut shows up, right-click on it. Choose ‘Properties’, which should be the last option in the list.

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You will now see the System Properties page. Here, you can see all the specifications of your gaming laptop or desktop in one place, including your processor, RAM, Windows versions, and of course, your graphics card.

There you go! You now know two ways to easily check out which graphics card your laptop or desktop has, you can also use these two ways to compare the specifications of your gaming laptop or desktop against a requirement of a new game to find out if your machine is adequately equipped for it.