Bigger is always better, right? When it comes to your graphics card, this isn’t always the case. Both AMD and NVIDIA use easily marketable combinations of letters and numbers to identify their GPUs, but this does not mean that the numbers are easy to understand. This article will explain the subtle nuances in the names of performance graphics cards.
- To find out the graphics card Subsystem Vendor ID and Device ID use Windows® Device Manager. Open Device Manager and expand Display adapters and Microsoft Basic Display Adapter should be visible. Right-click Microsoft Basic Display Adapter and click on Properties. Go to Detail tabs, select Hardware Ids under Property.
- Note: The below specifications represent this GPU as incorporated into NVIDIA's reference graphics card design. Graphics card specifications may vary by Add-in-card manufacturer. Please refer to the Add-in-card manufacturers' website for actual shipping specifications.
R5-series cards are meant to be entry-level cards not used for gaming. They range from the R5 210 to the R5 235X. The mid-level cards span quite a distance, from the R7 240 (which is a relatively weak card) to the R7 265 which is a decent budget graphics card. The next series of cards can be subdivided into two categories.
Generally, larger numbers denote better performance. Within a generation of graphics cards this is easy to understand. It is obvious that the GTX 780 will perform better than the GTX 760, and that the R9 280X is faster than the R9 270. But how does the GTX 680 compare to the GTX 760? And the HD 6950 to the HD 7790? At first glance the performance of these two cards might not be easily discernible.
NVIDIA
NVIDIA’s card names look like this:
GT 610, GT 620, GT 630, GT 640, GTX 650, GTX 650 Ti, GTX 650 Ti Boost, GTX 660, GTX 660 Ti. All of these are part of the 600-series, since they start with 6. The 500-series cards would look quite similar, but start with 5: GT 520, GTX 560, GTX 560 Ti, and so on.
The first thing to notice is that some are “GT” cards, and some are “GTX”. The “GT” label is for lower-end cards, which are not meant to handle powerful games, but are more suited for office work and light graphics. GTX cards are more powerful, and aimed generally at gaming-oriented machines.
The first number (i.e. the 7 in GTX 760) denotes the generation of cards it belongs to, and can be used as a very general performance indicator. The 700-series cards are one generation newer than 600-series cards, two generations newer than 500 series cards, and so on. (Update: with the release of the 900-series cards, NVIDIA decided to skip naming any generation as the 800-series. So, you’re not crazy, there are no 800-series NVIDIA cards.)
The second number in the name (i.e. the 6 in GTX 760) indicates the performance level of the card. In this case, the “60” means it is classified as a mid-range graphics card. There are several levels of performance within each family of cards: 700-735 cards are considered low-end or mainstream cards, and will not perform well in demanding 3D applications. Cards in the 740-765 range are performance cards and are well-suited for comfortable frame rates at 1080p resolution. Enthusiast-class cards are the 770 cards and beyond, meant for high FPS and multiple monitors.
The “Ti” cards are a bit more powerful than the non-Ti cards with the same number. So a GTX 750 Ti is more powerful than a GTX 750. NVIDIA sometimes has a “Boost” edition as well: There is a GTX 650, and GTX 650 Ti, and a GTX 650 Ti Boost. The “Boost” version is more powerful than the non-“Boost” card with the same number.
So, is the GTX 680 faster than the GTX 760? The answer is yes, but only slightly. The 680 is a previous generation card and has more raw performance than the 760 (faster clock rates, more shaders, texture mapping units, and SMX units) however, this performance comes at the cost of higher thermal design power and power consumption compared to the newer GTX 760. If you wanted to overclock the 760, you could end up with a card roughly on par with the GTX 680 for significantly less money.
Nvidia Serial Number Lookup
AMD
Until their latest generation of cards, AMD used a name scheme similar to the one NVIDI uses. They were named HD XXXX, where the first X represented the generation, and the next three described the relative performance of the card within that generation. So the 5000-series were named HD 5770, HD 5850, HD 5870. The 6000-series had HD 6850, HD 6870, HD 6950, HD 6970. For those old cards, the comparison was easy: As long as the cards were from the same series (5000, 6000 or 7000), then the higher numbered card was more powerful.
AMD’s new cards, on the other hand, are a whole different world. With their latest generation of cards, AMD adopted a new and very unique naming scheme. They follow the RN NNN(X) convention where the first N represents the overall performance level, and the next three Ns indicate varying degrees of power within that range of cards. An X at the end of the number refers to higher clock speeds, or a more powerful version of the card (R9 280 vs R9 280X)
At the time of writing, AMD’s new cards are R5 2XX, R7 2XX, or R9 2XX. The R5/R7/R9 are meant to help distinguish the target market, while the “2” means that all of these cards are from AMD’s 200-series. AMD’s next series will likely be called the 300-series, and will probably have card names that look like R5 3XX, R7 3XX, and R9 3XX.
R5-series cards are meant to be entry-level cards not used for gaming. They range from the R5 210 to the R5 235X. The mid-level cards span quite a distance, from the R7 240 (which is a relatively weak card) to the R7 265 which is a decent budget graphics card. The next series of cards can be subdivided into two categories. The R9 270 through R9 280X cards are high end units, capable of good FPS at 1080p resolution on medium to high settings. The R9 290 cards and beyond are meant for enthusiasts with a large amount of memory and plenty of raw horsepower.
The newest AMD cards aren’t easily comparable to previous generations which followed the HD XXXX naming scheme, which is similar to the one NVIDIA currently uses. Also, comparing cards across the different manufacturers requires a closer look at the raw specs to get the best idea of performance differences. Try and look for reviews from reputable reviewers to see how the card you intend to purchase compares to the competition.
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There is a million things that can go wrong with a Windows computer and it depends on where you get the problem that can help determine how it can be fixed. For instance, it can be very problematic when you get a freeze, blue screen or automatic restart while Windows is booting because usually the most information you will get is a rather cryptic BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) message which sometimes is pretty useless. You can however, pick up clues about a problem during boot by watching for when it occurs.
For instance, if you get a problem or crash at a point after you see the Windows login or welcome screen, programs starting with Windows would be the first place to look. A problem very early in the boot process, before Windows has really had a chance to start could be a problem with the Master Boot Record or the files Windows calls upon to start the boot process.
A different point in the boot process could be a driver issue, most drivers are loaded around the time you see the Windows logo animation and a crash here is possibly a corrupt, wrong or bad driver. If you can boot into Safe Mode but not into Windows, chances are a third party driver could be the culprit. If the video driver hasn’t been uninstalled then it’s not that difficult to find out what the video adapter is to download a new driver.
If you aren’t at the computer or the video driver has been removed then it could be more difficult to identify which video driver needs reinstalling. It’s also no fun trying to work in VGA mode with a low resolution while trying to find out. Of course, if the internet is available you can download a 3rd party utility such the portable information tool CPU-Z which can identify the CPU, mainboard, memory and graphics adapter, or use a bootable disc such as Hiren’s Boot CD which has a number of tools that could help.There’s another method where you can manually detect what video card you have which doesn’t require the use of any other tools but those present in Windows.
Identify Your Video Adapter in Windows 32-bit
This is achieved by using the built-in Windows debug tool. There is a rather sizable disadvantage to this method, and that is it doesn’t work on 64-bit Windows versions. No 64-bit version of Windows has ever included this tool and if you try to run it, you will just get an error.
The dubug.exe does however work on all 32-bit versions of Windows and is even still included in Windows 8 32-bit. To find your graphics adapter:
1. Open up the DOS command prompt by pressing the Win key+R, type cmd into the search box and press Enter.
2. Type debug in the command prompt and press Enter. This will start the debug prompt, indicated by a dash “-” at the beginning of each line.
3. Now type: d c000:0000 and press Enter. There are plenty of suggestions around the web for starting the search at a different address range such as c000:0040. This will most likely work just as well but starting at the beginning simply means you won’t miss any information by starting from an address too far down.
If you don’t spot anything that looks like a video adapter name, simply type d again at the prompt and press Enter to load in the next block of data. You might have to use the d command a few times but eventually the debugger should show what you can identify as the video adapter.
As you can see from the square boxes above, the video card has been identified as an Nvidia Geforce 7600GT, the arrows show the commands that were typed in. To get out of the debugger and back to an ordinary command prompt, simply type q and press enter.
This method is quite successful at getting the video adapter but is by no means foolproof. For instance several integrated graphics chipsets may only provide the motherboard vendor’s name and not the graphics chipset.
Find your Video Adapter Through WMI
Another way to get the graphics adapter which works on all versions of Windows including 64-bit is to gather the information through the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) component. To get the name of the adapter type the following into the Command Prompt:
wmic PATH Win32_videocontroller GET description
This will get the name of the adapter IF there is a driver installed for it. If not, it will simply show the standard VGA adapter. To get the hardware ID for the video, type in:
wmic PATH Win32_videocontroller GET pnpdeviceid
With the ID you can then search on websites such as Devid.info or The PCI ID Repository armed with this information and should be able to get the vendor and product name. The second backslash in the ID information and data after it is not needed to perform a search. There is also some other commands you can place after the GET argument such as “AdapterRAM” to get the size of the video memory in bytes, “Driverversion” will list any installed driver version, simply separate them with a comma for more than 1 argument at once. It’s worth reading the Microsoft Win32_VideoController supported arguments for a more comprehensive list.
So you don’t have to memorize any of the above commands, we have created a simple batch file for you to run. It will show you the name of the graphic adapter, the driver version, how much memory it has and its PNPdeviceId in a console window. Simply download and double click the .BAT file.
Download Get_Graphics_WMI batch file
These methods are obviously not going to be your primary way of gathering information about a graphics adapter, but is still useful to know if other options for you aren’t working.
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Replyvery very helpful man
Replyvery helpful, thanks
ReplyWorked beautifully thanx!
Replymany thanks fella, not seen that tip before. Will spread the word. ;o)
Replyworks in windows 7! (had to press ‘d & enter’ a few times) Thank You!
Replythanks
works where advisor from belarc, gpu-z etc doesn’t
very good tip..thanks..
ReplyGraphics Card Serial Number Search
found this tip helpful among countless of forum-entries, which could not help me !
thanks !!
Replygreat information, I was trying to run DirectX and looking to see if I had hardware acceleration, but couldn’t even determine the video card/adapter! looked in registry (regedit.exe), HKLM video/Device0 etc, then MSINFO.EXE, then DxDiag etc, even download some supposedly sophisticated tools/utilities to identify “any” card – FAILED, but this didn’t —-thanks a bunch!
ReplyThank you so much! I was finally able to identify this card i have!
Replyyou are awesome! i am really computer-handicap. Your instructions and tips were very easy to follow. I was able to obtain my video card driver. Thank you !
ReplyThis is extremely helpful!!! Thanks so much!
ReplyA great way to identify the graphics card without opening up the computer.
Reply
Thanks man!
This will really help
thanks
Replygood, thanks
ReplyVery nice, I like it.
Graphics Card Serial Number
Replynice tips! :)
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