How to Check Your System Hardware Specifications in Ubuntu

Whether you are planning to upgrade your computer’s RAM, verifying GPU capabilities before installing a game on Steam, or troubleshooting peripheral compatibility, knowing your exact hardware specifications is essential. While Windows has Device Manager and macOS has “About This Mac”, Ubuntu provides both clear graphical overviews in GNOME Settings and rich command-line utilities that report granular details about your processor cores, memory clock speeds, and PCI controllers.

Method 1: Check Basic Hardware in the Ubuntu Settings App (GUI)

For a quick summary of your processor, memory, and graphics hardware:

1. Click on the Quick Settings cluster in the top-right corner of the panel and click the Settings gear icon (or press the Super key and search for Settings).
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the left navigation sidebar and click on System (or About on older Ubuntu releases).
3. Click on About in the right-hand panel.
4. The overview displays:
   • Device name: Network computer hostname.
   • Memory: Total installed physical RAM (e.g., 16.0 GiB).
   • Processor: Exact CPU model name, architecture, and core count.
   • Graphics: Active GPU chip (Intel UHD, AMD Radeon, or Nvidia GeForce).
   • Disk Capacity: Primary hard drive partition size.
   • OS Name & Type: Ubuntu version and 64-bit architecture.

Method 2: Inspect Hardware with Fast Terminal Commands

The Linux command line provides instant, comprehensive hardware introspection:

1. Open the Terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T.
2. Check CPU details:

   lscpu

   Displays processor model, architecture, cache sizes, thread count, and virtualization support.
3. Check RAM and swap capacity:

   free -h

   Prints total, used, free, and available physical memory in human-readable gigabytes.
4. Check Graphics Card model:

   lspci | grep -i vga

5. Check Hard Drives and NVMe Storage:

   lsblk

Method 3: Install ‘inxi’ for a Beautiful Unified Hardware Summary

The inxi tool prints a clean, colour-coded summary of all motherboard, audio, network, and thermal sensors in a single command:

sudo apt install inxi
inxi -Fz

This command outputs a complete diagnostic report with personal MAC and IP addresses masked, making it perfect for copying into support forums.