How to Configure the Video Adapter for a Virtual Machine

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Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1

You can configure video adapter settings for a virtual machine if you are running Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (SP1). These settings enable you to use the Microsoft RemoteFX 3D video adapter. RemoteFX provides a high-end 3D graphics experience, where a virtual machine display can use multiple monitors, and display at high resolutions.

Important

To use RemoteFX, there are specific guest and host operating system and hardware requirements that must be met. For example, if you enable the RemoteFX 3D video adapter, the virtual machine can only be placed on a Hyper-V host that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1. For more information, see What's New in Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1.

Be aware that self-service users must use the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 7.1 client to connect to RemoteFX-enabled virtual machines that are available through the Self-Service Portal. This also applies to administrators who want to connect to RemoteFX-enabled virtual machines in the VMM Administrator Console. RDC 7.1 is included with Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 and Windows 7 with SP1.

You can configure video adapter settings on a virtual machine by using the following procedure. You can use this procedure when you modify a virtual machine or template, or configure hardware profile settings from the New Template Wizard, the New Hardware Profile Wizard or the New Virtual Machine Wizard.

Note

These settings are available on the Hardware Configuration tab in the properties of a virtual machine or template, on the Hardware Settings tab in the New Hardware Profile wizard, or on the Configure Hardware page of the New Template Wizard or the New Virtual Machine Wizard.

To configure video adapter settings

  1. In the left pane, under Hardware Profile, click Video Adapter.

  2. By default, the video adapter is set to Standard video adapter. To use RemoteFX, click Microsoft RemoteFX 3D video adapter. You can configure the following RemoteFX settings:

    Setting Possible Values

    Maximum number of monitors

    By default, this is set to 1. You can enter a value from 1 to 4 depending on the maximum monitor resolution.

    Maximum monitor resolution

    By default, this is set to 1280 x 1024. Possible values include the following:

    • 1024 x 768

    • 1280 x 1024

    • 1600 x 1200 (This value is only available if the maximum number of monitors is less than 4.)

    • 1920 x 1200 (This value is only available if the maximum number of monitors is less than 3.)

    Note

    The maximum number of monitors and the maximum monitor resolution affect the amount of memory that is used on the host graphics processing unit (GPU). If you exceed the memory available on the host GPU, you will receive an error message when you try to start the virtual machine or during placement of the virtual machine. For more information about video memory requirements for a maximum number of monitors and resolution, see Hardware Considerations for RemoteFX (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196610).

See Also

Concepts

What's New in Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1