Virtualization and Video Card

Virtualization helps utilize the computer power. (It would consume more power, than a single server, but much less compared to a group of single servers). Virtualization is a cost-effective solution.

Although there are great enhancement of virtualiztion technology, there is not so much in the field of video virtualization. So far, no released virtual machine could provide a modern video card. What they do provide is an emulated slow video card with likely 8mb ram or even worse. It has limited the usability of virtual machine. For example, a game user certainly could not play his/her most favorable 3D game on such a VM. An 8mb ram might not be sufficient to render a quite large LCD. Further more, many CAD software requires a compatible video card.

There are other possibilities. When CPU and main memory are fast enough, the GPU could be replaced. Thus, things will be simpler. Only an average video is necessary.

It would be great for people requiring the flexibility of *nix who can't live without games which only have windows versions. In an ideal world, users would be able to

• switch between VMs as easy as a simple click;
• run any application at native speed;