How to read a DXDiag [ Edited ]

[EA_Francois]

This thread is a guide for reading a DxDiag, contributions in green have been added by Dennis and Nils.

I'll drop the relevant parts of a DXDiag and add a few pieces on what to look for and how you can find useful information in there.

In this part of the DXDiag there are a few interesting bits:

• Operating system is a part of the system requirements, and is also relevant to find the latest drivers available for a given graphics card. This also tells you whether the latest service pack has been installed. If it is not and you are experiencing an issue updating your Windows to it, please get in touch with Microsoft. It is a paramount to have the latest service pack, as the lack of it may cause a variety of issues, on the forefront the system will likely be unsecured and hence much more susceptible to malware. The latest Service Pack by operating system would be: Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, SP 2 for Vista, SP1 for Windows 7 and "Update 8.1" for Windows 8.
• System Model is useful if the computer is a bought out of the box, like a laptop model or a workstation. This can help find information about settings, especially graphic cards on laptops where the DXDiag will detect the onboard chipset instead of the dedicated GPU. Another way would be scrolling to the system devices much further down in the Dxdiag, graphic cards will also be listed there in case you suspect the detected onboard chip under Display Devices is not the only one.
• Bios - This can be helpful in combination with the system model. It will let you look up the mainboard on the vendor site, check whether any major updates for the bios were released that might tackle a critical issue such as the one the player is reporting.
• Processor and Memory are part of the system requirements
• Page File - This is useful to check especially for systems with low memory barely scratching the minimum requirements to play a game. Two pages for further reading [1] [2]
• Windows Dir - Look here to see if Windows is on another hard drive/partion, e.g. not C:\ Not bad per se, but to keep in mind for issues with installations.
• DirectX Version is also part of the requirements for some games. Note that this is very misleading, it only lists what the installed software is capable of and has no relation to what the hardware can do. Operating system Vista Service Pack 2 and Win 7 / 8 will hence always show 11 here.  Instead, you will want to look at the hardware capability which you can see under Display Devices in the DDI Version entry.
• DPI settings - A variety of issues can be caused be using non standard DPI settings (the ones above are good, set to 100%, no scaling). Fonts could look out of place or some games might just not start at all.

• DxDiag Notes - Missing in the above screenshot, but this section is valuable in that you can see whether any uncertified drivers are being used. This is usually an indicator either for Beta drivers or for corrupt driver installations. Either way its usually worth pointing out to revert to the latested updated retail drivers from the appropriate vendor.

• Card name will let you know which GPU the computer is currently utilizing. In the case of a laptop, it'll often be the graphic chipset up there instead of the laptop's discrete GPU if there's one. In this case, refer to System Devices later in the DxDiag to see whether any other discrete cards are available.
• SLI vs Multi-monitor: 

  System Devices is the place to actually tell the number of cards in the system

  If a user has 2 or more screens itwill cause 2 or more entries in Display Devices but if there is only a single card then only one entry will appear in system devices.

  If there are multiple cards in SLI/Crossfire the System Devices is the place to look as the cards will appear as separate devices even when using dual monitors.

• Dedicated memory is important to figure out how much memory the card has itself for the system requirement. Good indicator for graphical issues.
• Current Mode / Native Mode - Do these match? If not, check whether at least the aspect ratio does. Also helps to see the Windows color depth (e.g. 32bit) that might cause issues with older games. Same applies for refresh rates (the number in Hz in brackets), something that was mostly important with older CRT style displays. Should be less of an issue these days with flat screen monitors.
• Output Type - This can be an indicator for graphical issues / games not starting (e.g. if the game is being run on a TV instead of standard monitor).
• DDI Version - This shows you which Direct X version the hardware actually supports. Also check out these great links to see what cards are capable of. Wikipedia - Comparison of GPUs: AMD / Nvidia / Intel - If a card should support something higher according to the list but does not according to the listed DDI version, the installed driver might be corrupted or just simple not the suited one.
• Display Driver lets you know which driver version a game uses. I'll come back to that in a minute. Copy/pasting the string listed under "Driver Version" into your search engine should display the driver it corresponds with (AMD Catalyst 13.9 in Francois' example above).
• Driver Date/Size is usually when you open your eyes wide and go like WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING because it gives you the age of the drivers used. In this case mine are almost a year old!
• WHQL Logo'd: tells you if the drivers are beta drivers or approved drivers.

Sometimes here in Driver Name you have Realtek drivers, which can be updated. You can notice I have two headsets plugged in though!

[EA_Francois]

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@EA_Francois wrote:

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Finding out about drivers and whether they need updating:

First off, look at the card to find out if it's an Nvidia or an AMD. If it's an integrated graphics chipset, we'll cover that later. In this case, you can read from the card name that this is an AMD.

Next step, go to the manufacturer's website: AMD, Nvidia.

Enter the information from the earlier bits of the DXdiag.

Both websites are rather self-explanatory as far as the informations they ask from the user.

 

The type of system will be notebook or desktop, which are the two relevant to you. Pick according to what you know of the computer.

The product family is rather straightforward, pick the one closest to the name of the GPU.

Then the product reference itself.

And finally, step 4, the operating system, which is at the top of the DXDiag.

Click display results.

See in "Display Driver" the version, and compare to the one on your computer. If it's more recent, download and install the latest version of Catalyst!

[EA_Francois]

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@EA_Francois wrote:

---

Finding out about drivers and whether they need updating:

First off, look at the card to find out if it's an Nvidia or an AMD. If it's an integrated graphics chipset, we'll cover that later. In this case, you can read from the card name that this is an AMD.

Next step, go to the manufacturer's website: AMD, Nvidia.

Enter the information from the earlier bits of the DXdiag.

Both websites are rather self-explanatory as far as the informations they ask from the user.

 

The type of system will be notebook or desktop, which are the two relevant to you. Pick according to what you know of the computer.

The product family is rather straightforward, pick the one closest to the name of the GPU.

Then the product reference itself.

And finally, step 4, the operating system, which is at the top of the DXDiag.

Click display results.

See in "Display Driver" the version, and compare to the one on your computer. If it's more recent, download and install the latest version of Catalyst!

[EA_Francois]

Nvidia's website is very similar: select the type of GPU, then the series (the number, basically), then the exact model, add the operating system, and switch the language to English because reasons.

If it's your own computer, you can use Option 2, I guess, I've never used it myself.

[EA_Francois]

Nvidia's website is very similar: select the type of GPU, then the series (the number, basically), then the exact model, add the operating system, and switch the language to English because reasons.

If it's your own computer, you can use Option 2, I guess, I've never used it myself.

[EA_Nils]

To add (via EA_David):

Very occasionally one might have issues installing and won't really understand why there isn't enough disk space available to complete a game or expansion install.

The Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives section gives a cheap and easy breakdown of drives and the remaining space. It also includes file system, which could hypothetically be indicitive of an issue, but in reality rarely is.

[proxos666]

@EA_Nils

In relation to the first post with the below quoted text it isn't really accurate as in the case of most dual intel/NVidia or intel/amd setups the intel card will be usually listed in the first part unless able to be disabled totally ( not required ).

the performance card should always appear in the system devices section, its not an indication that the program is using the intel card.

Card name will let you know which GPU the computer is using. In the case of a laptop, it'll often be the annoying graphic chipset up there instead of the laptop's GPU if there's one. In this case, refer to System Model for the laptop's model name and google it to find what kind of hardware it's packing.

if you go to system devices you will see the performance card listed and drivers used in dual gfx setups

eg from system devices

--------------
System Devices
--------------

Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Device ID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13C2&SUBSYS_367A1458&REV_A1\4&15E7D2AB&0&0010

Driver: C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Drs\dbInstaller.exe, 10.18.0013.5850 (English), 10/3/2015 14:58:10, 449144 bytes

[EA_Nils]

@proxos666 Yup, that is a good addendum.

How about this revised version?

Card name will let you know which GPU the computer is currently utilizing. In the case of a laptop, it'll often be the graphic chipset up there instead of the laptop's discrete GPU if there's one. In this case, refer to System Devices later in the DxDiag to see whether any other discrete cards are available.

[proxos666]

@EA_Nils

Lost track of this 

System Devices is the only place to actually tell the number of cards in the system

Dual screens will cause 2 entries in the Display Devices but if this is only a single card then only one entry will appear in system devices.

If this is SLI/Crossfire the system devices is the place to look as the cards will appear as separate devices even when using dual monitors

Hope that makes sense 

[EA_David]

N-N-N-NECROPOST! 

I included the suggested edits, thanks. 

[DarthFDG]

Does anyone have any details on other sections of the DXDIAG report, such as the Diagnostics section of the report? I can't seem to find much on-line.

[holger1405]

@DarthFDG 

The Diagnostics section of a DxDiag is an excerpt Windows Error Reporting (WER) diagnostics.

Since Windows Vista, Windows provides error reporting for crashes, unresponsiveness, and kernel errors by default, without requiring any changes to your application.
Instead, applications use the WER API to generate error reports for application-specific problems that are not related to unresponsiveness, or kernel errors.

Here is an overview of the meaning of each entry.
P1 = AppName (And so on down)