How can I detect my graphics card with no driver installed?

Question

I have no idea what graphics card hardware do I have, and have no driver installed. How can I detect what graphics card do I have to install the right driver?

Answer 1

For Windows I would see if Slimdrivers can autodetect it first otherwise try this.

Device Manger->Display Adapter
Right click on the device and click properties.
Click on the details tab.
Use the drop down to select:"Hardware Ids"

It may look like PCI\VEN_XXX&DEV_YYY

Ven is short for vendor so ATI/AMD, nvidia, Intel are the most common. Sometimes it's a number.
Dev is the device ID.

google Dev #### and Ven ####
You should be able to find it.

Answer 2

Linux: Have a look at the output of dmesg or lspci or lsusb (if it is a USB video card).

For me, I get the following:

> lspci | grep -i vga
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [ION] (rev a2)