AI integration is redefining mainstream enterprise applications, from productivity software like Microsoft Office to more complex design and engineering tools. This shift requires the modern data center to move beyond single-purpose silos.
For developers, gaining access to dedicated GPU compute can often be a bottleneck. Virtual machines (VMs) solve part of this challenge by providing secure, isolated, and scalable environments tailored to specific project needs. However, dedicating an entire physical GPU to a single VM is highly inefficient for mixed or lightweight workloads.
This is where NVIDIA Multi-Instance GPU (MIG) technology becomes essential. With MIG, a single physical GPU is partitioned at the hardware level into multiple fully independent instances, each with guaranteed memory, cache, and compute cores. For a development team, this ensures predictable, uncompromising Quality of Service (QoS). This means that multiple developers can simultaneously train AI models, run simulations, or render graphics on the same physical server without competing for resources or interfering with one another’s workloads.
The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPU, featuring 32 GB of high-speed GDDR7 memory and support for up to two MIG instances, and the newly released NVIDIA vGPU 20 software deliver a substantial performance boost to accelerate diverse workloads across virtualized enterprise data centers. Together, they can power everything from everyday productivity to lightweight AI development simultaneously.
This post walks through how to deploy virtual machines (VMs) with NVIDIA vGPU and the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition. It covers setting up MIG with vGPU, sizing for enterprise workloads, performance comparison, and supplementary features.
Configuring RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition for vGPU
The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPU with MIG technology revolutionizes virtualized workloads. The solution allows a single physical GPU to be securely partitioned into two independent GPU instances, each providing a dedicated 16 GB GPU framebuffer. This enables administrators to precisely allocate dedicated GPU resources, ensuring guaranteed quality of service for diverse virtual machines.
To follow along with the tutorial presented in this post, ensure your environment meets the core requirements outlined in Table 1. The tutorial uses VMware vSphere to set up MIG and vGPU.
| Requirement | Details |
| GPU | NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition |
| Server | An NVIDIA-Certified System that is fully validated and certified to run the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell GPU with NVIDIA vGPU and MIG |
| Hypervisor | See the NVIDIA vGPU v20 supported hypervisor list |
| Software | NVIDIA vGPU v20 release |
Configure vSphere for vGPU and MIG profiles
This step walks through the process of configuring the hypervisor settings to enable vGPU and mixed profile features. Then a 4 GB profile is attached to an MIG slice of an RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPU. This tutorial has three VMs on the host. A Windows 11 VM with a 4Q profile will be configured to demonstrate the process. Note that time-slicing within MIG will be supported on the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) soon.
Start at the vSphere web interface.
- Select the host: Navigate to the ESXi host running the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPU
- Configure PCI devices: Navigate to Configure -> Hardware -> PCI Devices
- Find the GPU: Locate the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition card in the list of PCI devices
Configure vGPU modes and mixed-size profiles
Next, adjust the Graphics Device setting for the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPU.
- Device Type: Select Shared Direct
- vGPU Mode: Select Mixed Size to enable different sizes of vGPU profiles to run on the same MIG instance
Attach a MIG-backed vGPU profile
After the initial VM creation, the next step is to attach a MIG-backed vGPU profile. To do this, first ensure the VM is powered off. Open the VM settings, select Add New Device, and then choose PCI Device.
For this scenario, assign a vGPU profile that is backed by a MIG slice. The RRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPU supports a maximum of two MIG slices. Each of these slices can accommodate various vGPU profiles.
As shown in Figure 4, select the nvidia_rtx_pro_4500_blackwell_dc-1-4q profile, which is a 4 GB profile. The presence of _dc-1- in the profile name signifies that this single vGPU is backed by one MIG slice on the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPU.
With the VM settings now configured, the New PCI device shows the MIG-backed vGPU profile (Figure 5). You can now power on the VM.
Provisioning VMs for various enterprise workloads
The NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPU, when paired with vGPU software, establishes a flexible virtual platform that IT organizations can leverage to accelerate diverse, mainstream enterprise workloads. As a demonstration, our team configured three distinct VMs, each utilizing a different MIG-backed vGPU profile—3B, 4Q, and 16Q. These specific profiles are typically well-suited for applications such as knowledge work, entry-level workstations, and data science or machine learning tasks.
For further exploration, run nvidia-smi on the hypervisor host where the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell GPU resides. The nvidia-smi utility is the NVIDIA System Management Interface, a command-line tool essential for monitoring and managing NVIDIA GPUs. Running it on the ESXi host allows administrators to see the real-time operational status, including details on GPU memory utilization, current temperature, and critically, the configuration and status of the MIG GPU Instances and the vGPU profiles running within them.
nvidia-smi command-line utilityMIG GPU Instance 1 is running a 16Q vGPU profile. MIG GPU Instance 2 hosts both the 4Q vGPU profile, as shown in the nvidia-smi output for this example, and an illustrative 3B vGPU profile.
It will be necessary to install the appropriate Windows 11 vGPU driver. Be sure to disable any software-emulated graphics that would interfere with the NVIDIA guest driver operation. Connect to the VM using a remoting protocol such as Omnissa Horizon or RDP. Once connected, open the Windows Device Manager and check the Display Adapters. Verify that the VM is using the MIG-backed vGPU profile, as configured previously in this tutorial.
Another experiment involves running the dxdiag utility. You can access this tool through the Windows search bar or by typing dxdiag into the command prompt. The primary graphics device should be identified as the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell DC-1-4Q profile.
vGPU solution architects at NVIDIA experimented with running two applications simultaneously on separate VMs, demonstrating the versatility of the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell GPU with MIG-backed vGPU. One VM hosted a CUDA-based particle simulation running in a Linux Docker container, while the other provided a Windows 11 desktop for a knowledge worker. These two distinctly different workloads were executed simultaneously.
Accelerate workloads with NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition
For organizations currently using NVIDIA Ampere (A-series) or NVIDIA Ada Lovelace (L-series) architectures, the move to NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition is a transformative leap rather than a marginal gain, particularly for AI-augmented applications. Specifically, in a virtualized environment, the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition provides nearly 1.9x the acceleration for graphics workloads in a 4K setup compared to the NVIDIA L4.
Enterprise knowledge workers require a responsive and interactive desktop experience, even as organizations scale their infrastructure. The RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPU provides a modern platform designed for these deployments. The Blackwell architecture introduces capabilities such as MIG, which spatially partitions the GPU to deliver predictable performance, improved resource utilization, and reliable quality of service for virtual desktops. Beyond raw compute and partitioning, RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell also delivers higher NVENC throughput, enabling more efficient remote display streaming.
With the launch of vGPU 20.0, RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition is fully integrated with major virtualization platforms, providing a seamless, deployment-ready solution for enterprise IT environments. This update ensures that IT admins can leverage the RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition architectural advancements within their data center deployments.
More enhancements in vGPU 20
In addition to supporting NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition, vGPU 20 introduces the following enhancements designed to accelerate modern applications and ensure consistent performance within virtualized environments:
- New NVIDIA AI Virtual Workstation (vWS) Toolkit: Deploys an NVIDIA AI Blueprint for Video Search and Summarization (VSS) in a vWS environment running on NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition
- Fixed-share scheduling for heterogeneous vGPU: Ensures consistent scheduling duration and frequency for each vGPU instance irrespective of other instances on the physical GPU
- vGPU support for VergeOS: Automates GPU driver management, vGPU profile assignment, and MIG configuration through its UI within a private cloud operating environment
- Wayland support: A display server protocol for Linux-based virtual machines
- Liquid-cooled GPU support for NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition
NVIDIA vGPU and NVIDIA Blackwell availability in the cloud
GPU virtualization offers a cost-effective way for enterprises to access necessary GPU resources through VMs from any location, utilizing only the capacity they require. For demanding AI and visual computing tasks that require high GPU memory, major cloud server providers now offer NVIDIA vGPU and NVIDIA Blackwell-powered instances:
- Google Cloud: Announced the preview of fractional G4 VMs powered by NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition. These vGPU-enabled configurations include 12 GB, 24 GB, 48 GB, and 96 GB profiles, supporting use cases from streaming services to high-fidelity 3D rendering and robotics sensor simulation.
- Microsoft Azure: The NCv6 series, powered by NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000, will offer NVIDIA vGPU-enabled fractional and full GPU options up to dual 96 GB.
Get started with NVIDIA Blackwell and NVIDIA vGPU
Harness the power of NVIDIA Blackwell virtualization to transform your data center for the AI-infused era of enterprise computing. By leveraging the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition and NVIDIA vGPU 20, your organization can use its existing, proven infrastructure to support an expanding variety of applications, as every application increasingly integrates AI capabilities.
Ready to see the difference? Request your free 90-day NVIDIA vGPU software trial.
