How to configure a VM with a passthrough graphics device

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When a passthrough graphics device with 3D capabilities is added to a VM, an error may occur if 3D is enabled also on VMware Video card. The following errors may occur:
  • During VM powerOn, vCenter may report:
    • Device 'Video card ' is not supported. "This is a general limitation of the virtual machine's compatibility with the ESXi version of the selected host."
    • A hardware 3D renderer is not available on the host.
  • During VM operation with VMware software renderer:
    • MKSMemMgr tag (SWRenderer) size <size> exceeds pool limit <limit>
  • In these error cases, the passthrough graphics device is not being used for 3D rendering.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0

Resolution

To configure a VM with a pass through graphics device,

1. While adding a passthrough graphics device to a VM, the VMware Video Card may require a configuration change.
2. In order to ensure the passthrough device processes 3D operations, the VMware Video Card must disable 3D graphics. This applies to VMs using Virtual Dedicated Graphics Acceleration (vDGA) and/or NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU (vGPU).
3. Once a passthrough graphics device is configured using Add PCI Device or Add Shared PCI Device, verify the VMWare Video Card setting for 3D Graphics indicates 3D Support is disabled.
4. This means the VMware Video Card will not process 3D operations, and thus ensures the passthrough graphics device will receive the 3D operations.