Activate WDDM mode on a Windows Server 2025 virtual machine in passthrough mode on VMware 8 Standard

cajona
Wed, 27 Aug 2025 10:50:58 +0000
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I have installed an NVIDIA A2 on an ESXi 8.0 Standard server and enabled passthrough for a Windows Server 2025 virtual machine, installing the Data Center driver on it. In Device Manager, I can see the GPU, and when I run nvidia-smi, it detects it but shows it in TCC mode. When I try to switch to WDDM mode (nvidia-smi -dm 0), it says ‘unable to set driver model for GPU 00000000:03:00.0; Not Suppoerted.’
Is it posible to change the card’s mode? I only need this for this VM; it’s a single ESXi host environment, and I don’t need to share the GPU.
Thank you