One of the best ways to find out information about your computer is through a built-in program called DirectX Diagnostics ("DXDiag"). The primary use of DXDiag is to gather information about your video card, the amount of RAM available for the card, and when the driver (software) was last updated that runs the video card.
Accessing DirectX Diagnostic Tool:
- On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and the 'R' key at the same time to bring up the 'Run' box.
- Type dxdiag into the Search field and press Enter on your keyboard.
- If this is the first time you've used DXDiag, you will be shown a prompt asking for your permission to "Allow DirectX Diagnostics to check if your drivers are digitally signed...". Click Yes.
- DirectX Diagnostic Tool will now open. Wait for the green progress bar in the lower left corner to complete. This should only take a few seconds.
- Now, click on tab at the top that says Display (if you only have one monitor connected) or Display 1 if you have multiple monitors connected.
Using the screen shot below, gather the information about your video card. The only information you need from this screen is the name of the card, the amount of RAM, and the driver date. If you have been sent to this article by one of our staff, you have probably been asked to provide this information. The fastest way to do this is to click on the "Save All Information" button and save the file using your name in the file name. This will create a .txt file that you can then email.
We do not support the following video cards: Intel HD Graphics, NVIDIA Quadro, NVIDIA NVS, Matrox video cards (which are different than DH2G and TH2G). Our recommendations are NVIDIA GeForce series cards or AMD Radeon HD series cards.
If the driver date is more than three months old, it's recommended that you download and install the most recent driver available. The links to the major video card manufactures are listed below. If you can't find a newer driver (or your card isn't listed) and you are using a laptop, you may need to get an update directly from your laptop manufacturer's website. On all of these sites you will need to know what version of Windows you are running (this can be found on the System tab of DXDiag on the third line under System Information) and the name of your video card.