RemoteFX vGPU Setup and Configuration Guide for Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012 introduces some significant improvements to RemoteFX™. One feature – RemoteFX vGPU - already present in Windows Server 2008 R2 is the ability to use a physical graphic adapter (GPU) in the Hyper-V host to accelerate the host-side rendering of display content. This guide describes the configuration steps to leverage RemoteFX vGPU in Windows Server 2012.

The vGPU feature of RemoteFX makes it possible for multiple virtual machines to share a physical graphics adapter. The virtual machines are able to offload rendering of graphic information from the processor to the dedicated graphics adapter. This will decrease the CPU load and improve the scalability for graphic intense workloads that run in the VDI virtual machines.

To off-load graphically intense workloads from the CPU to a physical GPU in Windows Server 2012 the following hardware is required:

• A SLAT-capable processor (Second Level Address Translation). AMD calls this processor feature “NPT” (Nested Page Table), Intel calls it “EPT” (Extended Page Table).
• A DirectX 11-capable GPU with a WDDM 1.2 compatible driver.
  • Note: Windows 7 with SP1 virtual machines with RemoteFX vGPU enabled require a DirectX 11-capable GPU on Windows Server 2012. The Windows 7 with SP1 virtual machine RemoteFX vGPU enabled virtual machine will still only support DirectX 9 in this configuration for RemoteFX vGPU.
• A “Full Installation” of Windows Server 2012 with the Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Virtualization Host roles enabled.
  • Note: Remote Desktop Virtualization Host role is not supported on Windows Server 2012 Core use full installation option for Windows Server 2012 instead.
• Windows 7 Enterprise with SP1 or Windows 8 Enterprise as guest operating system in the virtual machine with the RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter enabled.
  • Note: Windows 7 with SP1 with RDP 8.0-Update will only leverage RemoteFX vGPU using RDP 7.1 when running on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V with RemoteFX VGPU: (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/10/09/remote-desktop-protocol-8-0-update-for-windows-7-sp1-enabling-a-great-wan-user-experience-for-windows-7-sp1-virtual-desktops.aspx ). When running a Windows 7 SP1 VM with the RDP 8 update with updated VGPU WDDM driver on Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, RDP 8 can be enabled with the full RDP 8 feature set including UDP with VGPU (this has been tested and validated).
  • Note: Hyper-V Integrated Services must be updated on any Windows 7 with SP1 virtual machine.

Source: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16652.remotefx-vgpu-setup-and-configuration-guide-for-windows-server-2012.aspx#Requirements_for_RemoteFX_vGPU

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