With 3D graphics configured for RDS hosts, both applications in application pools and applications running on published desktops can display 3D graphics.

The following 3D graphics options are available:

NVIDIA GRID vGPU (shared GPU hardware acceleration)
A physical GPU on an ESXi host is shared among multiple virtual machines. Requires ESXi 6.0 or later.
AMD Multiuser GPU using vDGA
A physical GPU on an ESXi host is shared among multiple virtual machines. Requires ESXi 6.0 or later.
Virtual Dedicated Graphics Acceleration (vDGA)
A physical GPU on an ESXi host is dedicated to a single virtual machine. Requires ESXi 5.5 or later.
Note: Some Intel vDGA cards require a certain vSphere 6 version. See the VMware Hardware Compatibility List at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php. Also, for Intel vDGA, the Intel integrated GPU is used rather than discrete GPUs, as is the case with other vendors.

With vDGA, you allocate an entire GPU to a single machine for maximum performance. The RDS host must be in a manual farm.

With AMD Multiuser GPU using vDGA, you can share an AMD GPU between multiple RDS hosts by making it appear as multiple PCI passthrough devices. The RDS host must be in a manual farm.

With NVIDIA GRID vGPU, each graphics card can support multiple RDS hosts and the RDS hosts must be in a manual farm. If an ESXi host has multiple physical GPUs, you can also configure the way the ESXi host assigns virtual machines to the GPUs. By default, the ESXi host assigns virtual machines to the physical GPU with the fewest virtual machines already assigned. This is called performance mode. You can also choose consolidation mode, where the ESXi host assign virtual machines to the same physical GPU until the maximum number of virtual machines is reached before placing virtual machines on the next physical GPU. To configure consolidation mode, edit the /etc/vmware/config file on the ESXi host and add the following entry: 
vGPU.consolidation = "true"

3D graphics is only supported when you use the PCoIP or VMware Blast protocol. Therefore, the farm must use PCoIP or VMware Blast as the default protocol and users must not be allowed to choose the protocol.

Overview of Steps for Configuring 3D Graphics

This overview describes tasks that you must perform in vSphere and Horizon 7 to configure 3D graphics. For more information about setting up NVIDIA GRID vGPU, see the document NVIDIA GRID vGPU Deployment Guide for VMware Horizon 6.1. For more information about setting up vDGA, see the document Graphics Acceleration in View Virtual Desktops. For more information about setting up AMD Multiuser GPU using vDGA, see the Setting Up Virtual Machine Desktops in Horizon 7 guide.

  1. Set up an RDS host virtual machine. For more information, see Setting Up Remote Desktop Services Hosts.
  2. Add the graphics PCI device to the virtual machine. See "Other Virtual Machine Device Configuration" in the chapter "Configuring Virtual machine Hardware" in the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration document. Be sure to click Reserve all memory when adding the device.
  3. On the virtual machine, install the device driver for the graphics card.
  4. Add the RDS host to a manual farm, create a published desktop pool, connect to the desktop using PCoIP, and activate the display adapter.

You do not need to configure 3D graphics for RDS hosts in Horizon Console. Selecting the option 3D RDSH when you install Horizon Agent is sufficient. By default, this option is not selected and 3D graphics is disabled.