Is sVGA the same as NVIDIA VGX?

[johnsmithman3]

Hi,

Is NVIDIA VGX the same thing as the sVGA hardware support in Horizen View 5.2 if you use a supported NVIDIA card and the vib you download from NVIDIA? So If i use a supported NVIDIA card, the ESXi vib, then configure a desktop with the new sVGA support, it would be the same as NVIDIA VGX?

I Believe that VGX is supposed to show in the VM as an actual full blown NVIDIA GPU with DX11 support for gaming (which is what NVIDIA has shown off)  while sVGA with View 5.2 is limited to DirectX9.0c and OpenGL 2.1 mainly for things like AutoCAD.

[LMUISHuntsville]

You are correct in your second statement.  The nVidia GRID (VGX) technology is a fully capable vGPU channel into a supported nVidia GPU that has full support for all DirectX and OpenGL extensions.  The only offering Im aware of that will fully utilize this technology is Citrix XenServer with XenDesktop.  You can find more information about this here http://www.nvidia.com/object/grid-software-partners.html under the "virtual desktop solutions".  Citrix's solution is not yet publicly available.

Regards,

Nathan

[Linjo]

As many thing in tech marketing VGX is not only one feature but consists of several pieces.

VGX used to be called "Project Monteray" in its development phase and VMware have worked with NVIDIA for a long time with this.

So VGX and vSGA is not the same thing but under the covers vSGA is using some technology that VGX is providing.

One thing to note is that with vSGA is not tied to any specific hardware (as long as its supported of course) so you can move a VM from a host without a GPU to a host with a GPU without user downtime, interesting is also that vSGA is not tied to NVIDIA GPU:s (but those are the ones supported currently).

When it comes to the limitations with DX3D and OpenGL its suprisingly not a problem with the majority of CAD-applications out there, they usually require OpenGL 2.0/2.1 or DX3D 9.0.

Another development is vDGA that we have talked about in some blogs etc, that is DirectIO Passthrough of a GPU to a VM, then you will have full GPU functionality without limits but you will loose mobility with vMotion etc.

// Linjo

[LMUISHuntsville]

How new tech is "marketed" can definitly be tricky.  I was disappointed with nVidia's demo of VCA.  I had hoped they were virtualizing the GPUs with thier VGX tech, however as it turned out they were just doing GPU passthrough (not that exciting anymore).