How do I know what type of video card I have?

I just the new Sims 3 game and I can't play the game because it keeps telling me I need to update my video card. How can I check what kind of video card I have and what is the type of video card the Sims 3 needs?|||Select Start in lower left corner of your screen, then Run, type dxdiag and click OK, Select Display and it will tell you all.



Below is the Sims 3 requirements, hope this helps you. Keep in mind you may not have a Video Card, it is possible you have one built into your motherboard called a chipset, or integrated video, you can still install a card though.



THE SIMS 3 MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS (as of December 18, 2008 04:02 AM)



FOR WINDOWS XP



Windows XP (Service Pack 2)

2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent

1 GB RAM

At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content

128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

FOR WINDOWS VISTA



Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)

2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent

1.5 GB RAM

At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content

128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least:



Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 or above.

2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent

0.5 GB additional RAM

SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS

NVIDIA GeForce series



FX 5900, FX 5950

6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,

7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950

8400, 8500, 8600, 8800

9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280



ATI Radeon™ series



9500, 9600, 9800

X300, X600, X700, X800, X850

X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950

2400, 2600, 2900

3450, 3650, 3850, 3870,

4850, 4870



Intel® Extreme Graphics



GMA X3×00 series



Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slower. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Intel integrated chipsets featuring underclocked parts will not perform adequately.

Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but should run satisfactorily.



Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn’t listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all.|||click start

right click on "computer" on your start menu

left-click "properties"

click on "device manager" on the pane on the left

click the plus sign to the left of "display adapters"

Tada! Your video card!|||Type MSINFO32 in run

Click the + by Components

Click on Display



http://www.thesims3.com/game/systemreq