This article contains information about using HDX 3D Pro with VMware vSGA GPU sharing technology. It outlines various known reported issues while using vSGA with HDX 3D Pro. These limitations are not observed when using HDX 3D Pro with XenServer passthrough, vSphere/ESXi vDGA or XenServer GRID vGPU.

Considering that VMware is shifting away from vSGA to GRID™ vGPU as announced at the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference in March 2014, and given vSGA’s poor performance, API support limitations and limited market adoption, Citrix strongly recommends looking at alternatives to vSGA such as XenApp GPU sharing (on vSphere/ESXi vDGA or XenServer GPU Passthrough or bare metal) or XenServer GRID™ vGPU.

Background

GPU sharing is managed in different ways with various hypervisors.

For example:

• Citrix XenServer provides GPU passthrough as one-to-one (one GPU to one Virtual Machine) and high performance hardware-based GRID™ vGPU as one-to-many (one GPU to multiple Virtual Machines).

• VMware provides vDGA one-to-one (one GPU to one Virtual Machine) and is committed to developing NVIDIA GRID™ vGPU with Tech Previews before the end of 2014 and General Availability by 2015. VMware’s older GPU sharing technology was called vSGA and uses a software-based graphics API intercept model for one-to-many (one GPU to multiple Virtual Machines) sharing.

• Microsoft Hyper-V RemoteFX, also supported by XenDesktop, uses a software-based graphics API intercept model for one-to-many GPU sharing for DirectX based applications.

Because vSGA is limited to maximum of 512 MB video memory and it uses a graphics API Intercept model, all NVIDIA API calls fail in HDX 3D Pro. There is no workaround or plan to fix these issues, because the adoption of vSGA has been limited, performance has been poor, and VMware is transitioning to GRID vGPU.

Instructions

Known Issues and Limitations

Issue 1

Description

Aero effects are not available when using vSGA.

Reason

NVIDIA APIs are not available with vSGA. These APIs support Aero effects.

Issue 2

Description

Black border appears in connection when HDX 3D Pro VDA (with vSGA) available screen resolutions does not contain client resolution.

Reason

NVIDIA APIs are not available with vSGA. Using NVIDIA APIs, HDX 3D Pro VDA creates custom resolution.

If HDX 3D Pro VDA does not contain client resolution and custom resolution fails, then black border will be visible in VDA connection window.

Issue 3

Description

Mouse lag and overshoot observed while interacting with 3D apps in vSGA with HDX 3D Pro.

Reason

Graphics commands are sent from User Session to Session 0 (which controls GPU) by the API Intercept Model of vSGA, adding latency.

Issue 4

Description

DirectX version above 9.0 fails in vSGA with HDX 3D Pro.

Reason

vSGA does not support DirectX version above 9.0.

Issue 5

Description

OpenGL version above 2.1 fails in vSGA with HDX 3D Pro.

Reason

vSGA does not support OpenGL version above 2.1.

Issue 6

Description

Low frame rate (FPS) is observed for 3D apps in vSGA with HDX 3D Pro.

Reason

vSGA has limited video memory and graphics commands are sent from User Session to Session 0, adding latency (especially with large 3D models).

Issue 7

Description

Image quality for 3D apps is poor in vSGA with HDX 3D Pro.

Reason

vSGA has limited video memory and graphics commands are sent from User Session to Session 0.

Issue 8

Description

Dual monitor connection fails in vSGA with HDX 3D Pro.

Reason

If only one monitor is selected in vSGA, then second monitor will not be created by HDX 3D Pro. HDX 3D Pro uses the NVIDIA API to create extra monitors. This feature is not available with vSGA.

Issue 9

Description

The Host Monitor Blanking security feature fails in vSGA with HDX 3D Pro.

Reason

NVIDIA APIs are not available with vSGA API intercept model.

This article is an extension of CTX136291 - VMware vSphere 5.1 - Citrix Known Issues