Which graphics card is equipped with Windows Azure Virtual Machines?

Question

I’m thinking about running some graphical applications on a Windows Azure virtual machine, but I don’t know what equipment they have. Do all virtual machines have the same GPU? What is your experience?

Answer 1

GPUs on an Azure virtual machine are likely to be very simple and most likely will not be located close to the processing power needed for intensive graphics processing. As far as I know, MS does not publish graphics hardware details behind its virtual machines (if they use them at all?).

This raises the question of running WPF on the Azure cloud service, which might be useful.

Can Azure run WPF?

Answer 2

N-Series Laser Virtual Machines support multi-faceted GPUs. The NC Series VM sports Tesla K80, with DDA (Discrete Device Appointment), it should provide almost bare metal characteristics. NV series VMs offer the Tesla M60 with nVidia GRID.

More details:

• https://www.hpcwire.com/2015/09/29/microsoft-puts-gpu-boosters-on-azure-cloud/
• https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/hybridcloudbp/2016/12/13/n-series-azure-vms-with-gpu/

Surprisingly, there are FPGAs on azure machines (although they are not accessible to the public): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/project-catapult/