VMware Communities: Message List - VMware and NVidia drivers

Re: VMware and NVidia drivers

neptune2000 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 09:52:09 GMT

Got it. Thanks.

Re: VMware and NVidia drivers

etung — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:35:23 GMT

The difference between our replies is that the bolded parts you quote refer to a native boot scenario - in this case, XP is no longer a guest OS, but is in full control of the hardware. With a native boot scenario, the nVidia driver update is probably a good thing to install. I was pointing out that in a virtual environment, they don't apply. Note that in the native boot scenario, Windows should not load the VMware SVGA II drivers (since Windows should figure out that it has an nVidia graphics card), which is why I said the poster you refer to was confused.

Re: VMware and NVidia drivers

neptune2000 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:22:51 GMT

Hm. That is interesting, given that I just received a reply from VMware support, which I will be quoting here:

"Hi Marco,

According to my understanding with reference to the problem description
recorded in support request, you have received for Nvidia card updates in
Windows XP Guest OS.

Could you please let me know, are you running Boot camp partition as a
Virtual Machine and also have you installed boot camp Drivers in Windows XP
Guest OS?

If you have installed Boot camp Drivers in Windows XP Guest OS, at the time
of installing boot camp drivers If you have selected 'Automatically Software
Update for Windows" option, it will give the notification if any updates are
available for Windows Drivers when the Windows XP Guest OS boots.

These drivers are useful for your system if the system has Nvidia Graphics
cards, and should be installed in Native boot camp mode.

I would like bring your kind notice that, when you create Virtual Machine
from VMware Fusion, it creates a Virtual Machine with minimal configuration
of the system. The virtual machine sees a 'Virtualized' SVGA II graphics card
created by VMware Fusion. It won't recognize as a full features of Graphics
card which is in Host System.

How ever the Windows XP boot camp Virtual Machine will not recognize the
Nvidia graphics drivers since the VM uses it's own SVGA Drivers for your
Graphics card.

I suggest installing the latest Nvidia Driver updates in Native boot camp
mode."

Re: VMware and NVidia drivers

etung — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:18:07 GMT

The poster on the Apple boards is confused. There is no benefit to installing nVidia drivers in a virtual machine, and removing the VMware SVGA II adapter driver will cause problems. The reason is that virtual hardware is different from physical hardware; the guest does not see an nVidia graphics card but rather sees a VMware video card.

VMware and NVidia drivers

neptune2000 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:13:08 GMT

I have a MacBook Pro which has a built-in NVidia GeForce 8600M GT chipset. Someone in the Apple discussion boarss mentioned that it would be beneficial to replace the VMware Fusion "VMware SVGA II" adapter driver with the NVidia drivers form the Boot Camp disk. If I open the Boot Camp Driver folder, I can se 4 NVidia driver installers:

NVideaMobileSetup
NVidaXPMobileSetup
NvideaSetup
NVideXPSetup

(see attached)

Question 1: Should I load one of those drivers to get additional functionality besides the basic SVGA?

Question 2: If I do, which driver should I load if I am running Windows XP Home Edition? Should it be NVidiaXPMobileSetup given that I am running on a notebook?

Question 3: Do I just double click on the installer, or do I have to do anything else?

Thanks.