Limiting GPU usage in Windows 11 with NVIDIA A40 and VMware

ARDiver86
Tue, 09 Sep 2025 14:06:50 +0000
Horizon View vDGA

Hello,

I was curious if anyone knew how to adjust how Windows schedules the GPU in order to try to limit it’s usage to only the specific applications you want. For example, we are passing through a NVIDIA A40 in a 1Q or 2Q profile, but the majority of the GPU memory is being used by applications not meant for the GPU such as Explorer, OneDrive, Search, etc.

Windows has the graphics setting to choose what is using power saving vs high performance and in a non-VDI setup it seems the power saving defaults to the integrated GPU. But with the VMWare + Horizon setup, it seems like there is no “integrated gpu” equilivant and the only graphics adapter is the NVIDIA A40 which is causing Windows to use the A40 for both power save and high performance.

I checked my home computer and I have some different settings, but it seems like no matter what I try, Windows still puts a bunch of stuff on the GPU and there is no way to prevent it. To me, this means the VMWare recommendation of 1Q or 2Q just isn’t enough. 1Q barely even covers the Windows processes and I even asked VMWare support yesterday, which they still say 1Q and 2Q is their recommendation.

3 posts - 3 participants