Does my computer have onboard (integrated) graphics?

Updated: 06/30/2020 by Computer Hope

To determine if you have an onboard graphics card, look at the back of your desktop computer where everything connects. Find the monitor cable, which connects the monitor to the computer. Look where the cable connects to the computer.

Onboard Video Card

If the connection (VGA, HDMI, or DVI) is near the mouse, keyboard, and USB (universal serial bus) connections, your computer has an integrated graphics card. The picture above shows a computer with no expansion cards and a VGA and DVI connection for the onboard video (on the motherboard). In a tower case, like the one shown above, these connections are vertical and not horizontal.

However, if the connector is located in one of the expansion slots, it's a removable graphics card and not an onboard video card. The picture below is an example of a computer with a removable video card, located in an expansion slot.

Computer with video card

It is also possible for a computer to have a motherboard with an integrated video card and an expansion video card. The computer should default to the expansion, but sometimes the onboard video is disabled in the BIOS setup. The picture above has both onboard video and a video card expansion. The onboard video card has a cover over the VGA connector that prevents the user from connecting a monitor to this connector. With a tower case, when you have a video card in an expansion slot, the connector will be horizontal.