The virtual machine compatibility setting determines the virtual hardware available to the virtual machine, which corresponds to the physical hardware available on the host. You can review and compare the hardware available for different compatibility levels to help you determine whether to upgrade the virtual machines in your environment.
| Feature | ESXi 6.7 Update 2 and later | ESXi6.7 and later | ESXi 6.5 and later | ESXi 6.0 and later | ESXi 5.5 and later | ESXi 5.1 and later | ESXi 5.0 and later | ESX/ESXi 4.x and later | ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware version | 15 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 4 |
| Maximum memory (GB) | 6128 | 6128 | 6128 | 4080 | 1011 | 1011 | 1011 | 255 | 64 |
| Maximum number of logical processors | 256 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 64 | 64 | 32 | 8 | 4 |
| Maximum number of cores (virtual CPUs) per socket | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 32 | 8 | 1 |
| Maximum SCSI adapters | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Bus Logic adapters | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| LSI Logic adapters | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| LSI Logic SAS adapters | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| VMware Paravirtual controllers | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| SATA controllers | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | N | N | N | N |
| NVMe Controller s | 4 | 4 | 4 | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Virtual SCSI disk | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| SCSI passthrough | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| SCSI hot add support | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| IDE nodes | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Virtual IDE disk | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Virtual IDE CD-ROMs | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| IDE hot add support | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Maximum NICs | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 4 |
| PCNet32 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| VMXNet | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| VMXNet2 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| VMXNet3 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| E1000 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| E1000e | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| USB 1.x and 2.0 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| USB 3.0 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Maximum video memory (MB) | 128 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 512 | 512 | 128 | 128 | 128 |
| Maximum 3D graphics memory (GB) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | N | N | N | N | N |
| SVGA displays | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 1 |
| SVGA 3D hardware acceleration | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| VMCI | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| PCI passthrough | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| PCI Hot add support | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Nested HV support | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N |
| vPMC support | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N |
| Serial ports | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Parallel ports | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Floppy devices | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Virtual RDMA | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| NVDIMM controller | 1 | 1 | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| NVDIMM device | 64 | 64 | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Virtual I/O MMU | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Virtual TPM | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Microsoft VBS | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
