Connect to a Windows GPU Node

Connecting to a Windows GPU node is the same RDP flow as a regular Windows node. The only addition is the post-login NVIDIA driver check.

For the full RDP connect reference — finding the IP, RDP clients on Windows/macOS/Linux, retrieving the Administrator password, password changes, security group rules — follow Connect to a Windows node. This page only documents the GPU delta.

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Connect over RDP

Use the same RDP flow as a regular Windows node:

mstsc

Enter the GPU node's Public IP (or a reachable Private IP), Administrator as the user, and the password from the secure password email. See Connect to a Windows node for client-specific instructions on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

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Verify the NVIDIA Driver

After your first RDP login, confirm the GPU is present and the driver is loaded.

Device Manager

1. Right-click Start > Device Manager.
2. Expand Display adapters.
3. You should see the GPU listed (for example, NVIDIA A40 or NVIDIA L40S).
4. Right-click the device > Properties > Driver tab.
5. Confirm the Driver Version and Driver Date are present and that the device status reads This device is working properly.

nvidia-smi in PowerShell

The Windows driver installer also installs nvidia-smi.exe. Open PowerShell and run:

nvidia-smi

Expected output:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 580.65.06              Driver Version: 580.65.06      CUDA Version: 13.0     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                  TCC/WDDM     | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA RTX A6000           WDDM    | 00000000:00:1E.0  On   |                  Off |
| 30%   38C    P8               14W / 300W|      512MiB / 49140MiB |      0%      Default |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

What to read from this output:

Field	What it tells you
Driver Version	Installed NVIDIA driver.
CUDA Version	The CUDA runtime version the driver supports. Your application's CUDA must be ≤ this.
Name	Detected GPU.
TCC/WDDM	Display driver model. WDDM is required for any RDP-rendered display. TCC is compute-only.
GPU-Util	Should be 0% on idle.

note

Windows GPU nodes default to WDDM because RDP needs to render the desktop. Do not switch to TCC mode unless you are running headless compute and do not need the desktop rendered.

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Everything Else

Password change, RDP client tuning, security group hardening, and Access Console recovery work the same as any Windows node — see Connect to a Windows node.

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Related Resources

Resource	Use it for
Connect to a Windows node	Canonical RDP connect reference (non-GPU steps).
Create a GPU node	Launch a Windows GPU node.
Choose a GPU card	Pick the right card before you connect.
Connect to a Linux GPU node	Access Linux GPU nodes.
Troubleshoot GPU Nodes	Fix NVIDIA driver, WDDM/TCC, and CUDA issues.