Supported features for VMware virtual machine compatibility
Here is one of my most favorite VMware KB articles.
Supported features for virtual machine compatibility
Hardware |
ESXi 6.0 and later |
ESXi 5.5 and later |
ESXi 5.1 and later |
ESXi 5.0 and later |
ESX/ESXi 4.x and later |
Hardware version |
11 |
10 |
9 |
8 |
7 |
Maximum memory (GB) |
4080 |
1011 |
1011 |
1011 |
255 |
Maximum number of logical |
128 |
64 |
64 |
32 |
8 |
Maximum number of cores (virtual CPUs) per socket |
128 |
64 |
64 |
32 |
8 |
Maximum SCSI adapters |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
Bus Logic adapters |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
LSI Logic adapters |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
LSI-Logic SAS adapters |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
SATA adapters |
Yes* |
Yes* |
No |
No |
No |
VMware Paravirtual controllers |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Virtual SCSI disk |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
SCSI passthrough |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
SCSI hot plug support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
IDE nodes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Virtual IDE disk |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Virtual IDE CDROMs |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
IDE hot plug support |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Maximum NICs |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
PCNet32 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
VMXNet |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
VMXNet2 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
VMXNet3 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
E1000 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
E1000e |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
USB 1.x and 2.0 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
USB 3.0 |
Yes** |
Yes** |
Yes** |
Yes** |
No |
Maximum video memory (MB) |
512 |
512 |
512 |
128 |
128 |
SVGA displays |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
SVGA 3D hardware acceleration |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
VMCI |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
PCI passthrough |
16 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
PCI hot plug support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Nested HV support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
vPMC support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Serial ports |
32 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
Parallel ports |
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
Floppy devices |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
Guest OS support |
91 |
91 |
91 |
91 |
78 |