You must perform certain preparation tasks on the Windows or Linux host system to use 3D accelerated graphics in a virtual machine.
Prerequisites
- On a Windows host, verify that the host has a video card that supports DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 10.1, or DirectX 11 and the latest DirectX Runtime required for the DirectX version being used.
- On a Linux host, verify that the host has a video card that supports accelerated OpenGL 2.0 if you are using DirectX 9, or OpenGL 3.3 if you are using DirectX 10 or DirectX 10.1, or OpenGL 4.5 if you are using DirectX 11.
The VMware guest operating system OpenGL driver for Windows and Linux supports the OpenGL 3.3 and OpenGL 4.1 core profile only. The compatibility profile is not supported.
Note: If you have Workstation 16.2.0 Pro, you can use Vulkan renderer on a Linux host with Intel, Nvidia, or AMD GPUs. Vulkan renderer provides support for Direct3D 11 (and earlier) and OpenGL 4.1 (and earlier) in the guest.For Workstation 16.2.0 Pro, the Vulkan renderer support is limited to the following GPUs:- Intel Skylake and later GPUs (for example, Kaby Lake and Ice Lake)
- AMD RDNA/NAVI14 and later GPUs (for example, the Radeon RX/Pro 5300 and 5500 series)
Note: Presently, for AMD GPUs, use the AMDVLK driver. You can download the AMDVLK driver from here: https://github.com/GPUOpen-Drivers/AMDVLK/releases
- Nvidia Turing and later GPUs (for example, the RTX series)
Note: For pre-Turing GPUs, Workstation uses the legacy OpenGL renderer.
