Breaking down VMware GPU virtualization options: Soft 3D, vSGA and vDGA

Because VMware's products are so widely used and available, many virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) shops can use GPU virtualization capabilities in Horizon View to take advantage of improved performance for graphics-heavy applications. But the VMware GPU virtualization options -- Soft 3D, Virtual Shared Graphics Acceleration (vSGA) and Virtual Dedicated Graphics Acceleration (vDGA) -- each work differently, and have varying benefits in different situations.

Soft 3D

Soft 3D allows VMware ESXi-hosted virtual machines (VMs) to emulate a GPU in the software -- it doesn't need a video card. It doesn't offer high performance, but it provides a no-cost alternative for rendering applications that may require limited 3-D graphics capability. The display driver is installed through VMware Tools onto Windows desktops. And with Soft 3D, virtual desktops can use vMotion to relocate to another host server. Just know that the driver has limited compatibility with the DirectX 9.0c and OpenGL 2.1 standards.

Virtual Shared Graphics Acceleration

Targeted for task and knowledge workers who use light 2-D and 3-D applications, vSGA allows ESXi to use server-based hardware GPUs. It slices the GPU into virtual adapters and allocates video RAM up to 512 MB to each VM. Because vSGA uses the same display driver as Soft 3D, it's an easy transition from software to hardware acceleration. For example, if the GPU on the server exhausts all of its memory, the following VMs that power up can automatically use Soft 3D instead of failing.