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How to Check Your Computer Specs

October 15, 2026 · Luxurious Computers

Knowing your computer's specs — the CPU, RAM, storage, and graphics card — is essential information for upgrading hardware, checking if a game or program will run, troubleshooting performance problems, selling the computer, or getting repair estimates. Windows has several built-in tools that show this information without installing anything.

Quick overview — Settings

The fastest way to see your basic specs:

1. Press Windows + I to open Settings
2. Go to System, then About (scroll to the bottom of the left sidebar in Windows 10, or click System then About in Windows 11)
3. Under Device specifications you will see:

• Processor: Your CPU model and speed (for example, Intel Core i7-12700K @ 3.60GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X)
• Installed RAM: Total system memory (for example, 16.0 GB)
• System type: Whether you are running 64-bit or 32-bit Windows on a 64-bit processor
• Device name: Your computer's network name

Under Windows specifications you will see your Windows edition (Home, Pro, Enterprise) and version number. This page gives you the essentials but does not show your graphics card or storage details — for those, use the tools below.

Detailed specs — System Information

System Information shows everything about your hardware in one place.

1. Press Windows + R, type msinfo32, press Enter
2. The System Summary page shows your CPU, total RAM, BIOS version, motherboard manufacturer and model, and more

Key sections to explore:

• System Summary: CPU model and speed, total physical memory (RAM), BIOS version, baseboard (motherboard) manufacturer and model number. The motherboard model is important when checking for upgrade compatibility — it determines what CPU, RAM, and expansion cards your system supports
• Components, Display: Shows your graphics card (adapter description), its dedicated video memory (VRAM), driver version, and resolution. If you have both integrated graphics and a dedicated GPU, both will be listed
• Components, Storage, Disks: Shows each physical drive, its size, model number, and interface type. This tells you whether you have an SSD or HDD and how much total storage you have
• Components, Network, Adapter: Shows your network adapters (Ethernet, Wi-Fi) and their MAC addresses

CPU details — Task Manager

Task Manager shows your CPU model plus real-time performance data that System Information does not.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager
2. Click the Performance tab
3. Click CPU in the left sidebar

You will see:

• CPU model name at the top right (for example, Intel Core i5-13600K)
• Base speed: The base clock frequency
• Cores and Logical processors: Physical cores and threads. A 6-core CPU with hyperthreading shows 6 cores and 12 logical processors
• Virtualization: Whether hardware virtualization is enabled (relevant for running virtual machines)
• L1/L2/L3 cache: CPU cache sizes
• Current utilization graph: Shows CPU usage in real time, useful for diagnosing whether your CPU is a bottleneck

RAM details — Task Manager

In the same Performance tab, click Memory:

• Total installed RAM and how much is currently in use
• Speed: The RAM frequency in MHz (for example, 3200 MHz). This tells you what speed your RAM is running at, which may differ from its rated speed if XMP is not enabled in BIOS
• Slots used: Shows how many of the total RAM slots are occupied (for example, 2 of 4). This tells you whether you have room to add more RAM without replacing existing sticks
• Form factor: DIMM for desktops, SODIMM for laptops

Graphics card — DirectX Diagnostic Tool

For detailed GPU information including VRAM and driver version:

1. Press Windows + R, type dxdiag, press Enter
2. Click the Display tab (or Display 1 if you have multiple monitors)
3. You will see:

• Name: Your graphics card model (for example, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070)
• Manufacturer: NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel
• Approx. Total Memory: This includes dedicated VRAM plus shared system memory. The dedicated VRAM (Display Memory in some versions) is what matters for games and GPU-intensive applications
• Driver Version and Date: Shows whether your GPU driver is current. An old driver date (more than a few months old) suggests updating
• DAC Type: Shows whether the GPU is an integrated chip or a discrete card

You can also check your GPU in Task Manager under Performance, GPU. This shows the GPU model, dedicated VRAM, shared memory, current utilization, temperature (on supported hardware), and driver version — all in one view with real-time graphs.

Storage — Disk Management

To see all your drives, their sizes, partitions, and free space:

1. Press Windows + R, type diskmgmt.msc, press Enter
2. Disk Management shows every physical drive and its partitions as a visual layout

For each disk you can see:

• Total capacity and free space on each partition
• Drive type (Basic or Dynamic)
• File system (NTFS, FAT32, etc.)

To determine whether a drive is an SSD or HDD: open Task Manager, Performance tab, and click each disk in the sidebar. Task Manager labels each disk with its model name, and for SSDs it typically shows much higher read/write speeds and no seek time, while HDDs show lower speeds.

Alternatively, open a Command Prompt and run: wmic diskdrive get model, mediatype, size. This lists each physical drive with its model name, media type, and size in bytes.

Motherboard model

Knowing your motherboard model is essential for checking CPU and RAM compatibility when upgrading. In addition to System Information (msinfo32), you can find it via Command Prompt:

wmic baseboard get manufacturer, product, version

This returns the manufacturer (ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock, Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc.) and the exact model number. For prebuilt desktops and laptops from Dell, HP, and Lenovo, the model shown is usually a proprietary board specific to that system, and upgrade options may be more limited than with a standard motherboard from the major board manufacturers.

Battery health (laptops)

To check your laptop battery's health and see how its capacity has degraded over time:

1. Open Command Prompt as administrator
2. Run: powercfg /batteryreport
3. This generates a battery report as an HTML file, usually saved to C:\Users\YourName\battery-report.html. Open it in a browser

The report shows your battery's design capacity (when new) versus its current full charge capacity. If the current capacity is significantly lower than the design capacity (below 80 percent), the battery is degraded and may need replacement.

All specs at once — PowerShell one-liner

For a quick summary of all major specs in one command, open PowerShell and run:

Get-ComputerInfo | Select-Object CsName, CsProcessors, CsTotalPhysicalMemory, OsName, OsArchitecture, WindowsVersion

This outputs your computer name, CPU, total RAM in bytes, Windows version, and architecture in a single block of text. You can copy and paste this when sharing your specs for troubleshooting or upgrade advice.

Why specs matter for repairs and upgrades

When you bring a computer in for repair or ask about an upgrade, the technician needs to know your specs to give you accurate advice. A RAM upgrade depends on how many slots you have and what generation of RAM the motherboard supports. An SSD upgrade depends on whether your system has an M.2 NVMe slot or only SATA connections. A GPU upgrade depends on the power supply wattage and the physical space in the case. Knowing your specs before you ask saves time and helps you get accurate pricing.

Spec check help in Marion

If you need help determining what specs your computer has, what upgrades it supports, or whether a specific game or program will run on your hardware, LuxuriousComputers Repair in Marion can run a full diagnostic and give you a clear picture of your system along with any recommended upgrades.

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