August 2014 - last edited January 2017 by EA_David
This thread is a guide for reading a DxDiag, contributions in green have been added by Dennis and Nils.
I'll drop the relevant parts of a DXDiag and add a few pieces on what to look for and how you can find useful information in there.
In this part of the DXDiag there are a few interesting bits:
System Devices is the place to actually tell the number of cards in the system
If a user has 2 or more screens itwill cause 2 or more entries in Display Devices but if there is only a single card then only one entry will appear in system devices.
If there are multiple cards in SLI/Crossfire the System Devices is the place to look as the cards will appear as separate devices even when using dual monitors.
Sometimes here in Driver Name you have Realtek drivers, which can be updated. You can notice I have two headsets plugged in though!
August 2014
@EA_Francois wrote:
Finding out about drivers and whether they need updating:
First off, look at the card to find out if it's an Nvidia or an AMD. If it's an integrated graphics chipset, we'll cover that later. In this case, you can read from the card name that this is an AMD.
Next step, go to the manufacturer's website: AMD, Nvidia.
Enter the information from the earlier bits of the DXdiag.
Both websites are rather self-explanatory as far as the informations they ask from the user.
The type of system will be notebook or desktop, which are the two relevant to you. Pick according to what you know of the computer.
The product family is rather straightforward, pick the one closest to the name of the GPU.
Then the product reference itself.
And finally, step 4, the operating system, which is at the top of the DXDiag.
Click display results.
See in "Display Driver" the version, and compare to the one on your computer. If it's more recent, download and install the latest version of Catalyst!
August 2014 - last edited August 2014 by EA_Nils
Nvidia's website is very similar: select the type of GPU, then the series (the number, basically), then the exact model, add the operating system, and switch the language to English because reasons.
If it's your own computer, you can use Option 2, I guess, I've never used it myself.
August 2014
To add (via EA_David):
Very occasionally one might have issues installing and won't really understand why there isn't enough disk space available to complete a game or expansion install.
The Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives section gives a cheap and easy breakdown of drives and the remaining space. It also includes file system, which could hypothetically be indicitive of an issue, but in reality rarely is.
November 2015 - last edited November 2015
In relation to the first post with the below quoted text it isn't really accurate as in the case of most dual intel/NVidia or intel/amd setups the intel card will be usually listed in the first part unless able to be disabled totally ( not required ).
the performance card should always appear in the system devices section, its not an indication that the program is using the intel card.
Card name will let you know which GPU the computer is using. In the case of a laptop, it'll often be the annoying graphic chipset up there instead of the laptop's GPU if there's one. In this case, refer to System Model for the laptop's model name and google it to find what kind of hardware it's packing.
if you go to system devices you will see the performance card listed and drivers used in dual gfx setups
eg from system devices
--------------
System Devices
--------------
Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Device ID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13C2&SUBSYS_367A1458&REV_A1\4&15E7D2AB&0&0010
Driver: C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Drs\dbInstaller.exe, 10.18.0013.5850 (English), 10/3/2015 14:58:10, 449144 bytes
____________________________________________________________
SWTOR Forum Username = OwenBrooks
Australian (Fellow SWTOR Player) volunteer moderator. I do not work for EA.
Photo of my New Speeder
More information about: Becoming a Champion
SWTOR FAN Community Website Click Here
November 2015
@proxos666 Yup, that is a good addendum.
How about this revised version?
Card name will let you know which GPU the computer is currently utilizing. In the case of a laptop, it'll often be the graphic chipset up there instead of the laptop's discrete GPU if there's one. In this case, refer to System Devices later in the DxDiag to see whether any other discrete cards are available.
January 2017
Lost track of this
System Devices is the only place to actually tell the number of cards in the system
Dual screens will cause 2 entries in the Display Devices but if this is only a single card then only one entry will appear in system devices.
If this is SLI/Crossfire the system devices is the place to look as the cards will appear as separate devices even when using dual monitors
Hope that makes sense
____________________________________________________________
SWTOR Forum Username = OwenBrooks
Australian (Fellow SWTOR Player) volunteer moderator. I do not work for EA.
Photo of my New Speeder
More information about: Becoming a Champion
SWTOR FAN Community Website Click Here
March 2023
Does anyone have any details on other sections of the DXDIAG report, such as the Diagnostics section of the report? I can't seem to find much on-line.
March 2023
The Diagnostics section of a DxDiag is an excerpt Windows Error Reporting (WER) diagnostics.
Since Windows Vista, Windows provides error reporting for crashes, unresponsiveness, and kernel errors by default, without requiring any changes to your application.
Instead, applications use the WER API to generate error reports for application-specific problems that are not related to unresponsiveness, or kernel errors.
Here is an overview of the meaning of each entry.
P1 = AppName (And so on down)
New name, new look, same great benefits: EA Access and Origin Access are now EA Play.
Get more info on the change here.Reset, update, or link your account information.
View more on EA Help