If your games are running slowly or graphics are not displaying properly, it is most often caused by out of date video drivers or an older version of DirectX being installed on your system. This page will show you how to upgrade your graphics card drivers. Click here if you need to update your DirectX version as well or instead.

Updating Graphics Drivers.

The first thing to do is find out what graphics card your computer has.

STEP 1: Click on START, then click on RUN (as shown below)



STEP 2: Type in dxdiag (as shown below) and then press the OK button:



STEP 3: Click on the "Display" tab to bring up graphics card information. Look on your screen where the arrows indicate in the image below and it will tell you which graphics card you have.



STEP 4: You need to visit the website of your graphics card manufacturer OR the manufacturer of your computer. Some of the common graphics card makers websites are listed below:

Graphics card makers:
NVIDIA: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
ATI: http://www.atitech.com/support/driver.html
Intel Corp: http://www.intel.com/products/browse/chipsets.htm?iid=Homepage+Find_chipsets

You can also usually download directly from the manufacturer of your pc:
Dell: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=&s=gen
Compaq and Hewlett Packard (HP): http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html

TIP: If upgrading your driver makes no difference, try disabling DirectDraw Acceleration and Direct3D acceleration from the screenshot above. (Thank you to Ann and Julie for this tip).

Please note: we are unable to provide machine specific installation instructions. You are installing software entirely at your own risk. Always consult a computer professional before performing unfamiliar tasks or upgrades.