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My host machine has a 2GB graphic card (GeForce GT740M) but VirtualBox allows me to use just 256MB of memory. Because I would use CAD applications on Win7 (Guest) I would like to have more memory to run them properly.

I've installed guest additions.

I've searched online and I've found some different suggestions like:

  1. Manually modify the value on a file in VirtualBox folder
  2. Use the command VBoxManage modifyvm "Windows 7" --vram 1024

Both solutions are unstable and often give a boot error.

I've found also this TomsHardware thread and it says that no, there's no way to go above 256MB of VRAM.

To me it sounds ridiculous this cap on the VRAM (but there has to be a reason). Anyone may help to overcome it?

I say Reinstate Monica
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DavidMonten
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  • “To me it sounds ridicolous this cap on the vram (but there has to be a reason).“ - It’s not ridiculous just a limitation of your hardware and VirtualBox – Ramhound Oct 10 '17 at 10:34
  • ok, but why so few? I've 2gb vram, I would use one but I can use just 256mb. 1gb and 1gb would be fine for both host and guest ...but I must be wrong :/ So at the end we can state that there's no recommanded way to overcome this limit? as a consequance I cant' run graphic applications smoothly on a virtual machine? – DavidMonten Oct 10 '17 at 10:36
  • I already explained. It’s a limitation of the hardware you have plus a limitation of your chosen hypervisor. The only one you can address Ian the software limitation – Ramhound Oct 10 '17 at 10:38
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    The "VRAM" your virtual machine sees almost certainly isn't your actual hardware VRAM. Like every other piece of "hardware" in the virtual machine it is effectively an emulated hardware device. That you have 2GB of VRAM on your graphics card is largely irrelevant to your virtual machine. – Mokubai Oct 10 '17 at 10:46
  • What you might need to look into is a hardware pass through for your graphics card. – Seth Oct 10 '17 at 11:50
  • Consider trying other virtualization products. I've never tried using CAD on a VM - seems that the performance would be terrible. – Christopher Hostage Oct 10 '17 at 15:11
  • have you checked the User manual? It might provide some insights. http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.1.28/UserManual.pdf – AK M Oct 10 '17 at 14:21
  • As you did not quote anything, I assume you mean p.52 / chapter 3.5: `Video memory size: This sets the size of the memory provided by the virtual graphics card available to the guest, in MB. As with the main memory, the specified amount will be allocated from the host’s resident memory. Based on the amount of video memory, higher resolutions and color depths may be available.` - How, exactly, does that answer the question? – flolilo Oct 10 '17 at 14:26
  • Forcing VirtualBox to emulate more graphics memory will make your CAD application slower because emulated graphics memory is much slower than real RAM. As Mokubai said, emulated VRAM in VirtualBox has nothing to do with actual VRAM on your graphics card. – David Schwartz Oct 11 '17 at 07:14
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    @DavidMonten I think the key you are missing is VirtualBox EMULATES A video controller. It does not pass through your GPU to the VM. It currently, does not use your GPU except in very simple, if at all, ways. passing through GPU capabilites is in the works for most virtualization platforms, but it definitely is a new capability and the features available and stability per platform varies widely. Citrix does this currently; they tout you can run CAD/CAM software remotely with the GPU enhanced CAD running on a hosted VM elsewhere I think via XenDesktop – Damon Oct 12 '17 at 03:57
  • For anyone here from the future, according to this ancient ticket this is just confusing naming/lack of docs. That slider sets the size of the emulated display frame buffer and only affects 2d graphics (the pixel values that end up on the screen are written here). 3D graphics does not use this buffer and instead has access to all VRAM on the host CPU (obviously shared with other programs). https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/4971 – SilentVoid Mar 12 '21 at 20:07
  • People in comments asks, why you need this. I have answer, i have very capable system where i run lot of vm's. I know that i can run like minecraft on windows 10 vm but because the vm itself says that it has only 256 MB of vram, the minecraft doesn't run at all. even my cpu can run it with larger vram. So that is one reason why we need more than 256 mb. We need slider go up than this default max. – survivor303 Mar 24 '23 at 13:07

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