Whether you are troubleshooting video tearing, preparing to install proprietary NVIDIA drivers, or verifying that your system is using a dedicated GPU instead of integrated graphics, you need to know exactly which graphics card (GPU) your Linux machine is currently utilizing.
While some desktop environments provide GUI tools for this, the most reliable and universal method across all Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Arch) is to use the terminal. Here are the two most effective commands for identifying your GPU hardware.
Method 1: Use the lspci Command
The lspci command lists all devices connected to the PCI bus on your computer. Since graphics cards are PCI devices, this is the most common way to identify them. By piping the output into the grep command, we can filter the list to only show VGA or 3D controllers.
- Open your Linux terminal.
- Type the following command and press Enter:
lspci | grep -i --color 'vga\|3d\|2d'
The terminal will output a line detailing your graphics hardware. For example, it might say VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB] or VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Renoir.
If you see two lines returned (often an Intel integrated controller and a dedicated NVIDIA/AMD controller), it means your system has a dual-GPU setup, which is very common on modern laptops.
Method 2: Use the lshw Command for Detailed Information
If you need more comprehensive information about your graphics card—such as the exact driver it is currently using, its clock speed, or its hardware configuration—you should use the lshw (List Hardware) command.
- Open your terminal.
- You will need root privileges to get the full hardware details, so type the following command and press Enter:
sudo lshw -C display - Enter your password when prompted.
This command will output a detailed block of information for your display controller. Look for the vendor and product lines to identify the exact card model. Crucially, look at the configuration line at the bottom of the block. You will see an entry that says driver= followed by a name (such as driver=nouveau, driver=nvidia, or driver=amdgpu). This confirms exactly which driver the Linux kernel is currently using to operate the card, which is essential for troubleshooting driver installation issues.