VMware Communities
davidst95
Contributor
Contributor

Windows 10 Full Screen on a 4k monitor

Hi,

I am running Windows 10 Technical Preview with VMWare Workstation 11.1.   I can't seem to run it in full screen.   I have a 4k monitor.   I also installed it on Virtual Box and do not have any issues viewing Windows 10 in full screen.   Do you know what could be the issue?   Thanks.

David

Reply
0 Kudos
8 Replies
wally
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Did you by any chance find a fix/workaround for this? we're currently having issues with new 4K laptops and horizon view.

Reply
0 Kudos
Lugies
Contributor
Contributor

I'm having similar issue where none of my VMs (Win 8.1 and Win 10) will run in full screen anymore unless I turn off "Accelerate 3D graphics".  I'm also running 4K monitor.  It all of the sudden quit working so I'm wondering if it had something to do with graphics driver update.  I'm running Geforce GTX 970.

Reply
0 Kudos
Uxian
Contributor
Contributor

I'm having the same issue using the Windows 10 technical preview on a Lenovo Y50-70 (4k laptop with an nVidia 860m GPU) - I just see a black screen with a flickering cursor.  As with the previous poster, disabling 3D acceleration seems to work around the issue.

Reply
0 Kudos
Gaurav_Baghla
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

4K monitors are yet not supported with Horizon view

Regards Gaurav Baghla Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer. https://twitter.com/garry_14
Reply
0 Kudos
wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

The first thing to check in this case is that you've set enough memory on the graphics adapter.

Settings -> Display -> Memory

Unfortunately I do not know how much memory is required for being able to drive a 4k display, but I would try a high setting. I doubt that the recommended 1GB is sufficient.

edit: also make sure to update to the latest VMware Workstation (11.1.2)

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
Reply
0 Kudos
pSynrg
Contributor
Contributor

4K resolution is 3840 x 2160 so 8294400 pixels (8mp). 32bits or 4 bytes per pixel = 8294400 * 4 = 31.640625 MB

A single frame buffer therefore requires no more than 32MB to display a 4K image.

Of course there are other complexities for video memory but assuming your physical video hardware has at least 128MB (which is a very conservative figure these days) then the host and the guest should have no problem having hardware assisted frame buffers in video RAM at the same time.

VMware are no doubt at the mercy of the host video subsystem and drivers, but surely its not such a big problem?

Possible userbase is still too small for any serious engineering commitment...

Reply
0 Kudos
wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi pSynrg‌,

Thanks for correcting me.

Your calculation makes sense and is in fact confirmed at this KB article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
Reply
0 Kudos
pSynrg
Contributor
Contributor

No problem.

With all the hyperbole surrounding 4K and video cards with 4GB+ of memory, it's no surprise that massive resources may thought to be a prerequisite!

Reply
0 Kudos