Will dedicated graphics improve VM's?

[Michael78]

I've got ESX setup on a couple of HP ML115 servers with intergrated graphics with 32MB shared memory. Will buying a dedicated graphics card improve slight jittering when running 3-4 VM's at once?

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hello,

You mean installing a graphics card into the HP ML115 hosts that are running ESX?

No I'm sorry the hosts will not use the extra graphics cards. You cannot dedicate a graphics card to any of the virtual machines either.

This might be possible in the future, but it is not an available choice right now. The graphics adapter in your virtual machine is a completely virtual adapter and because of that it might underperform in certain scenarios.

How are you accessing the virtual machines currently? Are you using remote desktop or the Virtual Infrastructure Console?

FWIW, Remote desktop is going to give you a better experience as a remote console.

Hope this helps,

--
Wil
_____________________________________________________
VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

Contributing author at blog www.planetvm.net

Twitter: @wilva

[Varunsh]

A Fusion Virtual Machine can only see the virtual graphics adapter ......not all vms can see

[AWo]

The virtual machines can only the a virzualized graphics adapter, not the physical one. That is one thing which makes it very easy to move guests around. The unified virtual hardware.

If that might come in the future, as an option, I expect it first to appear in Workstation and not in ESX as the ESX server is a datacenter class hypervisor.

BTW, have you installed the VMware Tools in your guests? They contain beside other important things the appropriate driver for the vmware graphics adapter.

AWo

VCP 3 & 4

\[:o]===\[o:]

=Would you like to have this posting as a ringtone on your cell phone?=

=Send "Posting" to 911 for only $999999,99!=

[Michael78]

Cheers for the answer guys. Reason I was asking was because the intergrated graphics on the ML115 is only 32MB so thought that when running 3-4 VM's then they will all stuggle sharing the 32MB so thought getting a dedicated graphics would help with the slight stuttering I sometimes get which I put down to this.

[wila]

Hello,

From your reply I'm not completely sure you understand our replies. Maybe you do, maybe not.

Let me try to be more specific. The graphics "hardware" that the virtual machine is using is completely written in software.

The virtual machine is not using a graphics card on the host at the moment. It would still work the same without the 32 Mb integrated graphics card too.

The only real graphics hardware the virtual machines are using is the hardware on your desktop that is connecting to the virtual machine.

Hope this helps,

--
Wil
_____________________________________________________
VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

Contributing author at blog www.planetvm.net

Twitter: @wilva

[Michael78]

Wil, didn't understand until you explained it so thanks for clearing that up.

Regards

Michael