Practical Lab: Display and GPU Exploration

Objective

Find out what graphics hardware your own PC has, which driver runs it, how much memory it uses, and what your screen is doing right now. You only look. Nothing in this lab changes any setting.

Time: 25–30 minutes
You need: A Windows PC. No extra software is required.

What to Open

Part 1: Which GPUs Do I Have? (Device Manager)

In Device Manager, open Display adapters.

1. How many adapters are listed? ________________
2. Name of the first one: ________________
3. Name of the second one (if any): ________________
4. Does any entry say Microsoft Basic Display Adapter? (Section 2.4) ________________

Right-click one adapter → Properties → Driver tab (look only; do not click Update, Roll Back or Disable):

5. Driver Provider: ________________
6. Driver Date: ________________
7. Driver Version: ________________

(A laptop with two entries has an integrated and a discrete GPU, Section 1.2. A desktop with only one entry may have just the integrated GPU or just the card.)

Part 2: Watch the GPU Work (Task Manager)

In Task Manager → Performance, click GPU 0 (and GPU 1 if present). If there is no GPU entry, go to Part 3 and skip this one.

8. GPU name (top right): ________________
9. Driver version and date (bottom right): ________________
10. Dedicated GPU memory (VRAM, Section 1.2): ________________
11. Shared GPU memory: ________________
12. Current GPU utilisation (%) with nothing running: ________________

Now watch the graph while you do something harmless: drag a window around the screen, or play a video in your browser.

13. Did the 3D, Video Decode or Copy graph move? ________________

Why this matters: the graph titles come from the pipeline you learned. 3D is the rendering pipeline (Section 4). Video Decode is the media engine (Section 1.1). If a video plays while Video Decode is busy and 3D is quiet, the fixed-function hardware is doing the job with little power.

Part 3: Ask PowerShell (Same Facts, Another Way)

Type this and press Enter (it only reads):

Get-CimInstance Win32_VideoController | Select-Object Name, DriverVersion, DriverDate, VideoProcessor

Then this one for the current screen mode:

Get-CimInstance Win32_VideoController | Select-Object Name, CurrentHorizontalResolution, CurrentVerticalResolution, CurrentRefreshRate, CurrentBitsPerPixel

14. Does the driver version match Part 1? ________________
15. Current resolution (width × height): ________________
16. CurrentRefreshRate (Hz): ________________
17. Frame time at that refresh rate (1000 ÷ Hz, in ms): ________________

A third column called AdapterRAM also exists, but for cards with a lot of memory it may show a wrong or capped number. Trust Task Manager or dxdiag for the amount of VRAM.

Part 4: Display Settings and Refresh Rate (Settings)

Open Settings → System → Display. Scroll down and open Advanced display.

18. Display name: ________________
19. Desktop mode (resolution and refresh rate): ________________
20. Active signal mode: ________________
21. Colour format / bit depth (if shown): ________________
22. Does the screen show a HDR setting on the Display page? ________________

(Look at the drop-down for the refresh rate if you like, but do not change it.)

Also scroll through the main Display page and note the Scale and Display resolution values:

23. Scale (%): ________________
24. Display resolution marked "(Recommended)": ________________

Part 5: The Big Report (dxdiag)

Run dxdiag. If asked whether to check for signed drivers, either answer is fine for this lab. Open the tabs and look.

System tab

25. DirectX Version: ________________

Display tab (there may be a second Display tab and a Render tab for another GPU)

26. Name and Manufacturer: ________________
27. Display Memory (VRAM): ________________
28. Driver Model (this is the WDDM version, Section 2.1): ________________
29. Feature Levels: ________________
30. Under DirectX Features, which of DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP Texture acceleration say Enabled? ________________

Look at the Notes box at the bottom: it should say No problems found.

(You do not need to click Save All Information. That writes a text file and is not needed here.)

Part 6: Another View (System Information)

Run msinfo32. Open Components → Display.

31. Adapter Description: ________________
32. Adapter RAM: ________________
33. Driver Version: ________________
34. Resolution and Bits/Pixel: ________________

What Should Happen

• Parts 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 show the same GPU and driver in different words.
• Task Manager shows VRAM for a discrete card, mostly shared memory for an integrated GPU.
• dxdiag shows your WDDM version as "Driver Model".
• The refresh rate in Part 3 matches the Advanced display page.

Interpretation Guide

Follow-Up Questions

1. In Part 2, which graph moved when you dragged a window, and what does that tell you about the DWM (Section 8.5)?
2. Your refresh rate is 60 Hz. How many milliseconds does one frame last?
3. The numbers for VRAM in Task Manager and dxdiag differ a little. Why might "shared" memory be counted differently?
4. If your PC lists two GPUs, which one is the monitor plugged into? How could you tell?
5. Name three facts from this lab you could not have learned just from looking at the monitor.