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View Full Version : Need help with identifying my video card.


Archived Post
08-29-2009, 12:01 PM
I have an Nvidia 8600 GT and I think it's EVGA. I have decided that the best upgrade for my buck right now is to run it in SLI. I know the card can support it but I don't know the *exact* model of the card which I need to know to buy it's SLI mate. I am hoping to avoid having to pull the card to get the serial number off it. Do any of you know of a piece of software that will pull the exact card info for me? I know I can check the system settings in Windows but that just gives me the basic info, not the manufacturer or model number. I'm running Vista 64bit as my OS so any Windows based piece of software should work fine.

Thanks in advance folks,

BIZKeT

Archived Post
08-29-2009, 12:13 PM
press "download drivers"...
then u have 2 or more options- first is manually and second is automaticly.
press the automaticly and then wait it to scan ur system...
then it will show u the download for ur driver.

Archived Post
08-29-2009, 12:17 PM
Just use Everest (http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?ps=UE&page=48&dlid=35&lang=en). I'm not sure if the trial version will give you the exact brand and model, but I know the full version does.

Archived Post
08-29-2009, 12:52 PM
Just use Everest (http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?ps=UE&page=48&dlid=35&lang=en). I'm not sure if the trial version will give you the exact brand and model, but I know the full version does.

I tried that and all I could get out of it was what I can already get out of the Windows system info. Perhaps I am looking in the wrong place.

Archived Post
08-29-2009, 12:54 PM
press "download drivers"...
then u have 2 or more options- first is manually and second is automaticly.
press the automaticly and then wait it to scan ur system...
then it will show u the download for ur driver.

That won't tell me what I need to know. Nvidia uses a unified driver package that doesn't care who the manufacturer of the card is, it just installs the base drivers for the card family.

Archived Post
08-29-2009, 01:49 PM
For SLI matching, your best bet really is to get the model number and track it down by that.

There's too many variations to guess, and what you need is an exact twin. If you're savvy, you can try this:

The below steps require that the user first get to a MS-DOS prompt. Information about getting to a MS-DOS prompt can be found on document CHDOS.

At the C:\> prompt type the below commands.

debug <press enter>

At the - prompt type the below command.

d c000:0040

After typing the above command you should receive several lines of text similar to:
C000:0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
C000:0050 E9 63 7B 00 B4 10 49 27 - E9 FE 2B E9 F7 2B 50 4D .c{...I'..+..+PM
C000:0060 49 44 58 00 5B 00 00 00 - 00 A0 00 B0 00 B8 00 C0 IDX.[...........
C000:0070 00 5B 53 54 42 20 6E 56 - 49 44 49 41 20 54 4E 54 .[STB nVIDIA TNT
C000:0080 20 76 65 72 2E 20 31 2E - 31 30 20 0D 0A 00 1B 43 ver. 1.10 ....C
C000:0090 6F 70 79 72 69 67 68 74 - 28 43 29 31 39 39 38 20 opyright(C)1998
C000:00A0 53 54 42 20 53 79 73 74 - 65 6D 73 20 49 6E 63 0D STB Systems Inc.
C000:00B0 0A 00 22 6C 2C 0A 01 00 - C3 50 24 7F E8 60 36 58 .."1,....P$..'6X

As you can pick out in the above dump this gives you enough information to determine the make and the year made on the video card. On line 4 you can see the make of this video card, which in this case is a nVIDIA TNT, which would be the Riva TNT chipset. The next line you notice the version of the card and finally the line thereafter is the copyright or the year manufactured generally.

If you are unable to capture any information that sounds like the video card you can also type

-d c000:0090

The above line will give you a dump similar to the above example however may have additional information about the video card.

Once you're ready to exit the debug prompt type quit to exit back to the MS-DOS prompt. If you wish to close the MS-DOS window type exit.

Good luck.

Archived Post
08-29-2009, 02:32 PM
I tried that and all I could get out of it was what I can already get out of the Windows system info. Perhaps I am looking in the wrong place.
What I'm getting is this (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a51/DaDennis12/uploads/everestgpuinfo.jpg)

Archived Post
08-29-2009, 02:49 PM
I know the card can support it but I don't know the *exact* model of the card which I need to know to buy it's SLI mate.

You haven't had to do that ... well, ever. Back at launch you did need to match the model type and ram amounts, but you don't have to do that now. (Type as in 8800 GT + 8800 GT, an 8800 GTX + 8800 GT would not work.) If the cards differ in specs they will run at the lowest common denominator when running in SLI.

For example:

Card A - 650 Mem core, 1 gig ram
Card B - 700 Mem core, 512 meg ram

The lowest common denominator is a 650 mem core speed and 512 meg of ram. The system will then run them matched in this form. It will under-clock the faster card, and ignore the additional 512 meg of ram on the larger card.

I have decided that the best upgrade for my buck right now is to run it in SLI.

If you can get the card for maybe $40 and have a power supply that can run dual cards, sure. If not that is not your best upgrade for several reasons.

- SLI is not always guarenteed. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Just pointing to Champions Online as an example, there are known issues and many users with multi GPU setups have to disable things down to a single GPU.
- Sticking with the same card does not get you new features / technology. There are currently two generations of upgrades past what you have.
- The particular card in question is no longer in production and, as such, will be more expensive in terms of power to performance when buying it as a new item.
- If you are getting the card used you won't have any kind of coverage (unless it's an XFX card with "Double Lifetime" coverage.)

- - -

Evga 9600 GT low power edition (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130485) (only needs a 350w PSU with 20 amps) $70 post rebate.
Best bet if you need to stay low cost. Note that while this is only a single generation step up - and it places similarly within the line as the series 8 did for it's line - it will get you as much power gain as running dual 8600 GT due to the increase in power over the 8600 GT. (Even more so if you factor in the above.)

Evga 9800 GT, Superclocked (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130450) $110
What I'd really recommend people target as a minimum for gaming these days.

Archived Post
08-29-2009, 04:26 PM
If you can get the card for maybe $40 and have a power supply that can run dual cards, sure. If not that is not your best upgrade for several reasons.

- SLI is not always guarenteed. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Just pointing to Champions Online as an example, there are known issues and many users with multi GPU setups have to disable things down to a single GPU.
- Sticking with the same card does not get you new features / technology. There are currently two generations of upgrades past what you have.
- The particular card in question is no longer in production and, as such, will be more expensive in terms of power to performance when buying it as a new item.
- If you are getting the card used you won't have any kind of coverage (unless it's an XFX card with "Double Lifetime" coverage.)



Good to know on not needing an exact duplicate card. The card I am looking at will run me (after rebate) $30 new from Newegg. I will do some further research on how well the game handles SLI. It's either upgrade the video *really* cheap or wait for a year until I can afford to buy a new computer. I have already upgraded this one as far as I can. 939 chipset MoBo with 4 gig of ram and an AMDX2 64bit 3800. The next step is buying a new mobo, proc, ram, etc. and I really can't afford that for a while. $30? I can afford that :)

Archived Post
08-29-2009, 04:29 PM
What I'm getting is this (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a51/DaDennis12/uploads/everestgpuinfo.jpg)

When I look in there it is blank. If I run a report all it tells me is that it is a 8600 GT chipset. I have the freeware version though. Do I have to pay for a full version to get that kind of information?

Archived Post
08-29-2009, 08:43 PM
Everest, as far as I know, is a professional benchmarking tool. So I'd expect you need to get a pay version to see all the info.

CPU-z (http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php) and GPU-z (http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/), on the other hand, are just shareware system scanning tools. If you really want to find out the exact model number they should be able to get it. (It depends on if the chip will identify itself to tools like this. Sometimes it only gives the most basic info.)