Difference between revisions of "How to identify your graphics card"

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Identifying your computer's graphics card is useful in troubleshooting issues with the Second Life viewer, especially issues where in-world content is not displayed properly or the viewer crashes. This information is also useful for finding and installing updated drivers for your graphics card.

Identifying your graphics card

Using Windows XP

Identifying your graphics card with Windows XP

Right-click on My Computer.
Click on Properties.
Click the Hardware tab.
Click the Device Manager button.
Open the Display Adapter tree and your video card name is listed there.
Double-click the video card listing and open the Driver tab. This will give you what driver date and version you are running.

Using Mac OS X

Click the Apple menu and choose "About this Mac..."
Click the "More Info" button to open System Profiler, or open the System Profiler application in /Applications/Utilities.
Click "Graphics/Displays" item in the Contents pane on the left.
Specific information about your card will be listed in the right pane, including Chipset Model and Vendor.

Using the Second Life viewer

Launch Second Life and log in. Click the Help menu at the top of the display and select "About Second Life..." Information about the Second Life viewer and your computer are displayed in the "About Second Life" window. Details about your graphics card are displayed next to the following items:

Graphics Card Vendor
Graphics Card
OpenGL Version

Second Life requirements for video cards

Current requirements for video cards can be found on the System Requirements page. This page also includes a list of cards that are explicitly not supported.

Updating graphics card drivers

See Help:Updating drivers

Unsupported video cards

As of May 11, 2007, these cards have been tested and are known not to work with Second Life. If the name of the card includes any of the following words, it is unsupported.

nVidia cards that report as a RIVA TNT or TNT2
ATI cards that report as RAGE or RAGE PRO
ATI cards that report as RADEON 320M, 340M, 345M, or similar model numbers
Intel
Intel Extreme
3DFX
RIVA
TNT
SiS
S3
S3TC
Savage
Twister
Rage
Kyro
MILENNIA
most cards by MATROX

Untested video cards

Residents may be able to use some video cards that are untested, though some graphics features of Second Life may not be available or may not work properly. Updating the video card's drivers may improve compatibility. Additional information about using untested cards may be available from other users in the Resident Answers forum on the SL Forums.

Cards with known issues

ATI 9800 -- Bugs in the final design of this chip variant of the ATI Radeon cause problems with Ripple Water and Avatar Vertex Program features. The Second Life viewer will force-disable these options if cards built using this chipset are detected.
ATI Radeon x300 x86/sse2

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 == Identifying your graphics card ==
-Launch Second Life and log in. Click the Help menu at the top of the display and select "About Second Life..." Information about the Second Life viewer and your computer are displayed in the "About Second Life" window. Details about your graphics card is displayed next to the following items:
+=== Using Windows XP ===
+[[Image:identifyinggraphicscardWIN.png|thumb|Identifying your graphics card with Windows XP]]
+# Right-click on My Computer.
+# Click on Properties.
+# Click the Hardware tab.
+# Click the Device Manager button.
+# Open the Display Adapter tree and your video card name is listed there.
+# Double-click the video card listing and open the Driver tab.  This will give you what driver date and version you are running.
+=== Using Mac OS X ===
+# Click the Apple menu and choose "About this Mac..."
+# Click the "More Info" button to open System Profiler, or open the System Profiler application in /Applications/Utilities.
+# Click "Graphics/Displays" item in the Contents pane on the left.
+# Specific information about your card will be listed in the right pane, including Chipset Model and Vendor.
+=== Using the Second Life viewer ===
+Launch Second Life and log in. Click the Help menu at the top of the display and select "About Second Life..." Information about the Second Life viewer and your computer are displayed in the "About Second Life" window. Details about your graphics card are displayed next to the following items:
 *Graphics Card Vendor
@@ Line 16: / Line 32: @@
 Current requirements for video cards can be found on the [http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php System Requirements page]. This page also includes a list of cards that are explicitly not supported.
-== Updating video card drivers ==
+== Updating graphics card drivers ==
-Some issues with Second Life may be resolved by updating the video card's drivers. The card manufacturer's website should have free driver updates available.
-*[http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp NVIDIA drivers]
-*[http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html ATI drivers]
-=== Updating Macintosh video drivers ===
-Residents using Macintosh computers with built-in graphics made by ATI or NVIDIA generally are unable to update graphics drivers, except when Apple issues updated drivers. Use the Mac's built-in [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106704 Software Update] to check for and download the latest drivers from Apple. Macintosh computers with third-party graphics cards (such as those installable in PowerMac G4, G5, or Mac Pro systems) may be able to download updated drivers from the card manufacturer.
+See [[Help:Updating drivers]]
 == Unsupported video cards ==