Virtualizing High End NVIDIA Consumer GPUs in VMware's Free Hypervisor

Over 5 years ago I wrote the White Box VMware ESXi Server Build article - this takes that base and goes a step further (learn how you can take advantage of your PC hardware using VMware's free Hypervisor - everything from that article still applies!). Today, I'm here to document how I managed to get an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 running within a virtualized Windows 10 Professional x64 box. NVIDIA does not allow consumer GPUs to be virtualized (they'd prefer you utilize their Quadro line) - but with these few hacks you'll be up in no time! I am using VMware ESXi 7.0.0 build 16324942 for the below steps.

Step 1: Install your GPU

Just like any other hardware upgrade - pop your case open and get busy. Make sure that you have a power supply that can handle one (or more) beefy cards. Mine is 1500W from my old SLI days...and that other GPU is a measly GTX 1650 (for transcoding in my virtual Ubuntu Plex server) - so plenty of headroom.

Do some cable management (my Corsair 12-pin GPU cable hasn't arrived - so excuse the stock splitter!) - also - make sure you are using two individual 8-pin (6+2) connectors from your PSU as power connections to spread the load.

Step 2: Enable PCI Passthrough on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

Login to VMware - go to "Host" > "Manage" > "Hardware" > Select the two components (GPU and Audio) > Click "Toggle passthrough" > Check that it shows as "Active"

Step 3: Build your VM

Set it up with whatever virtual hardware makes sense for your purpose. If using Windows, there are a couple of tricks that you'll need to use:

Enable PCI Passthrough

Make sure both "Hardware virtualization" and "IOMMU" are turned off

Stealth your VM

Go to "VM Options" > "Advanced" > Under "Configuration Parameters" > Click "Edit Configuration..." > Click "Add parameter" > Key == "hypervisor.cpuid.v0" > Value == "FALSE" - now NVIDIA drivers will be able to install successfully.

Step 4: Use your GPU!

Login to Windows (console or via Remote Desktop) - install VMware Tools, your applications - whatever you need - you can now successfully install NVIDIA drivers and use your high-end NVIDIA card to the fullest!

I'm passing through USB so I can monitor my UPS (for nice, clean power more than the battery element) and running MSI Afterburner and GPU-Z to monitor my GPU!