What does this VMWare warning really mean? ... "... Insufficient video RAM...."

Question

Here is the actual warning from VMotiononing:

Warning message from xxxx-esxi16.xxxxx.xxxxx.xxxxx.edu: Insufficient video RAM. The maximum resolution of the virtual machine will be limited to 1176x885. To use the configured maximum resolution of 2560x1600, increase the amount of video RAM allocated to this virtual machine by setting svga.vramSize="1638400" in the virtual machine's configuration file.

Here is the actual error on the logical VM host/image (Windows Server 2008):

VMCIUtil: Updating context id from 0xb9b2da33 to 0xb9b2da33 on event 0.

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 07 '13 at 06:19

5

Just like it says, there is not enough video RAM available in that VM to use the 2560x1600 resolution and you are limited to 1176x885 as maximum resolution. If you want to increase the memory size of that VM's video ram then follow these instructions:

To increase the svga.vramSize setting:

Power off the virtual machine.
Right-click on the virtual machine and choose Edit Settings.
Click the Hardware tab.
Click Video Card.
Select Enter total video RAM and enter a higher value.
Click OK.
Power on the virtual machine.

Straight from the VMware KB Insufficient virtual machine video RAM (1024990)

edited Jul 07 '13 at 06:19

MacGyver

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answered Apr 30 '13 at 23:21

Reality Extractor

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How is the memory usage on the VM itself comparable to video RAM? – MacGyver May 01 '13 at 06:42
@MacGyver - perhaps you should have been more explicit about what you wanted to know then. You made an attempt at asking a question in the title of the question, but then never really follow it up in the body. – Mark Henderson May 01 '13 at 08:31
I'll ask a new question. – MacGyver May 01 '13 at 14:03

What does this VMWare warning really mean? ... "... Insufficient video RAM...."

1 Answers1