Run Autodesk Maya on AMD-based V710 GPU on an Azure VM

Overview

Autodesk Maya is a 3D content creation application used for modeling, animation, visual effects (VFX), simulation, rendering, and character rigging. It provides tools for film, television, gaming, visualization, and design workflows.

Maya enables content creators to develop 3D assets, animate characters and environments, create procedural effects, and render scenes. Its modeling, animation, simulation, lighting, and rendering capabilities support content creation workflows and integration with digital content creation pipelines.

This article describes the test architecture and Autodesk validation of Maya 2025 on an AMD Radeon PRO V710 GPU-enabled Azure virtual machine. Users accessed the virtual machine through Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), and the validation used an attached Azure managed disk for project files.

This architecture is intended for 3D artists, animators, visual effects specialists, technical artists, game developers, visualization professionals, and media production teams that use GPU-accelerated environments for content creation and rendering workflows.

Current challenges

Organizations that provide Autodesk Maya environments for 3D content creation, animation, and visual effects often face the following challenges:

• High-cost graphics workstations: Autodesk Maya workflows such as modeling, animation, simulation, and viewport rendering require powerful GPU-enabled workstations. Procuring, maintaining, and regularly upgrading these systems can increase infrastructure costs and operational overhead.

• Limited support for remote creative teams: Artists, animators, and visual effects professionals increasingly collaborate across locations. Providing secure remote access to Maya while maintaining a responsive viewport experience and protecting creative assets can be difficult with traditional workstation-based deployments.

• Complex project and asset management: Large productions often involve substantial volumes of scenes, textures, caches, simulations, and rendered assets. Managing and sharing these files across distributed teams can create challenges related to storage performance, version control, and collaboration.

• Performance demands from complex scenes and simulations: High-polygon models, detailed environments, character rigs, particle effects, and simulation workloads can place significant demands on compute and GPU resources, potentially affecting artist productivity and project timelines.

• Inconsistent user experiences across hardware platforms: Differences in workstation specifications can result in varying application performance, making it difficult to provide a consistent experience for artists, designers, and production teams.

• Protecting creative content and intellectual property: Digital assets often represent significant business value. Organizations must ensure that project files, production data, and proprietary content remain secure while enabling collaboration among internal teams, contractors, and external partners.

Validation scope

Autodesk validated Maya 2025 on a Standard_NV24ads_V710_v5 Azure virtual machine by using its standard hardware certification package. Each applicable scenario ran manually once and passed. The validation didn't collect quantitative performance measurements.

The complete architecture isn't presented as production-ready. Based on the successful Autodesk validation, the Maya application on the V710 GPU is production-ready.

Prerequisites

Before deploying and validating Autodesk Maya 2025 on an Azure virtual machine, ensure you meet the following requirements:

1. Azure environment

   • An active Azure subscription.

   • Microsoft Azure is generally available in regions worldwide.

   • A GPU-enabled Azure virtual machine deployed for Maya workloads.

   • A Standard_NV24ads_V710_v5 virtual machine with 24 vCPUs, 128 GiB of memory, and AMD Radeon PRO V710 GPU resources.

2. GPU driver

   • AMD Radeon PRO V710 GPU driver version 32.0.21017.2052 installed and configured for hardware-accelerated graphics.

   • Verify that the AMD GPU driver functions correctly and that hardware acceleration is available in Maya.

3. Autodesk Maya software

   • Access to the Autodesk Maya installation media.

   • Maya 2025 installed on the virtual machine.

4. Licensing infrastructure

   • A cloud-enabled Autodesk Maya license associated with your email address.

5. User access and connectivity

   • User accounts with appropriate permissions to access the virtual machine.

   • Reliable network connectivity to the Azure-hosted Maya environment and any storage services that contain project data.

6. GPU validation

   • Verify that Windows detects the AMD Radeon PRO V710 GPU.

   • Confirm that the Maya application starts with hardware acceleration enabled.

   • Validate that the Maya test suite runs successfully.

Architecture

This architecture provides an AMD-powered v710 GPU-based VM for an Autodesk Maya environment on Azure. The following architecture diagram illustrates the validation test environment used for this assessment and doesn't represent a full production deployment architecture.

Workflow

The following workflow describes how users access and use Autodesk Maya in the Azure-hosted environment. The steps correspond to the numbered components shown in the architecture diagram.

1. Users connect to the Azure virtual machine: Users sign in to the Azure portal and establish a remote desktop connection (RDP) to the Azure virtual machine by using its public IP address.

2. Azure networking provides connectivity: Azure networking services, including the public IP address, virtual network, and network interface, enable secure connectivity to the virtual machine. Azure DNS supports name resolution for Azure resources when required.

3. Network traffic is secured and routed: User traffic is routed to the virtual machine hosted within an Azure Virtual Network (VNet). Network security groups (NSGs) enforce inbound and outbound security rules to control access and protect the environment.

4. The virtual machine runs Autodesk Maya: The Azure virtual machine hosts the Windows operating system and Autodesk Maya application. It provides the compute, memory, storage, and AMD Radeon Pro V710 GPU resources required to support modeling, animation, simulation, rendering, and visualization workloads.

5. Attached storage provides project data access: For this validation, an Azure managed disk was attached to the virtual machine and mounted as a shared drive named Temp. The disk stored Maya scenes, assets, textures, caches, and other project files required during testing.

6. Azure infrastructure hosts and manages the environment: Azure resource groups and virtual networks organize the resources used by the Maya environment. These services provide logical management, security boundaries, and operational control for the validation deployment.

Azure components

This reference architecture uses the following Azure components.

Azure portal is the browser-based console where authorized users sign in to deploy and manage Azure resources.

Azure DNS provides name resolution for Azure endpoints.

Azure Resource Manager resource groups organize and manage related Azure resources. You deploy the test resources in one resource group.

Public IP addresses provide public connectivity to Azure resources. You associate a public IP address with the virtual machine's network interface.

Network interfaces connect virtual machines to virtual networks.

Azure NVads V710 v5 virtual machines provide on-demand, scalable compute without the need to maintain physical hardware. Use these GPU-enabled virtual machines to host Maya application. The tested Standard_NV24ads_V710_v5 size has 24 vCPUs and 128 GiB of memory.

Azure Virtual Network facilitates secure communication between Azure resources, storage services, the internet, and enterprise networks.

Network security groups filter network traffic to and from the VM's network interface or subnet.

Azure managed disks provide persistent and reliable storage for Azure virtual machines that host Maya workloads. They store the operating system, Maya application files, and design data while providing consistent performance and simplified storage management through Azure-managed infrastructure. In this study, one managed disk is named Temp.

Remote Desktop client lets you connect to Windows desktops over a network by using the Remote Desktop Protocol. In this architecture, RDP establishes a connection between the Azure virtual machine and an on-premises machine or remote laptop.

Validate Maya on Azure

Testing strategy

Autodesk used the Maya Hardware Certification Test Suite, its standard certification package for validating hardware, to evaluate graphics behavior, viewport interaction, animation playback, simulation workflows, rendering functionality, and application stability. This functional validation compared the test outputs with Autodesk reference outputs and didn't collect quantitative performance measurements.

Test configuration

The following table shows the tested configuration:

Maya test scenarios and outcome

The validation team manually ran each Autodesk Maya validation scenario once. They evaluated the result from each test case against the corresponding Autodesk reference output. The following table shows the outcome of that single execution. Throughout the validation process, the team assessed viewport responsiveness, visual fidelity, application stability, user interaction performance, and graphical consistency across all tested workflows.

A test case was considered successful when the generated output aligned with the expected reference result and completed without visual artifacts, rendering anomalies, graphical corruption, application instability, unexpected behavior, or application failures.

All applicable Autodesk Maya 2025 Hardware Certification Test Suite workloads passed during their single manual execution on the Azure virtual machine. The only exception was the Arnold GPU test, which was marked Not Applicable because it requires a CUDA-compatible GPU.

Scenario details

A media, entertainment, or game development organization can deploy Autodesk Maya on Azure Virtual Machines for artists, animators, and content creators who work from different locations.

In this architecture, artists connect to a dedicated Azure virtual machine that runs Maya and uses AMD Radeon PRO V710 GPU resources for modeling, animation, rigging, simulation, look development, and visualization workflows. An attached Azure managed disk stores project assets, scenes, textures, caches, and rendered outputs.

Potential use cases

Consider this architecture for the following digital content creation and visual computing use cases:

• 3D modeling and asset creation for films, television, games, and visualization projects.

• Character animation and rigging for entertainment, gaming, and virtual production workflows.

• Visual effects (VFX) production, including particle systems, dynamics, and simulation-based effects.

• Look development, shading, and texturing for high-quality digital content creation.

• Virtual production and previsualization workflows requiring interactive scene development and review.

• Architectural, product, and industrial visualization for presenting designs and concepts through realistic 3D content.

• Remote and distributed creative teams that require secure access to Maya without depending on high-end local workstations.

• Educational and training environments that provide centralized access to professional 3D content creation software.

This architecture applies to media and entertainment, game development, animation studios, visual effects production, architecture and design, advertising, education, and product visualization.

Considerations

The following considerations align with the pillars of the Azure Well-Architected Framework, which is a set of guiding tenets used to improve the quality of a workload. For more information, see Well-Architected Framework.

Reliability

Reliability helps ensure that your application can meet the commitments that you make to your customers. For more information, see Design review checklist for Reliability.

Reliability ensures that Autodesk Maya workloads remain available and recoverable in the event of planned maintenance, infrastructure issues, or unexpected disruptions. Azure provides resilient infrastructure, durable managed storage, and built-in platform maintenance capabilities to help maintain application availability and protect creative project data.

Organizations can enhance reliability by implementing regular backup procedures, using Azure managed disks for durable storage, and establishing recovery processes for critical assets and project files. By leveraging Azure's infrastructure and data protection capabilities, organizations can minimize downtime and maintain continuity for Maya production workflows while aligning with the Reliability principles of the Azure Well-Architected Framework.

Security

Security provides protection against deliberate attacks and the misuse of your valuable data and systems. For more information, see Design review checklist for Security.

Security helps protect Autodesk Maya workloads, creative assets, and project data from unauthorized access and potential cyber threats. Azure provides identity, network, and data protection capabilities that help organizations secure access to Maya environments and safeguard intellectual property.

Organizations can use Microsoft Entra ID, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to ensure that only authorized users can access the virtual machine and associated project resources. Data can be protected through encryption at rest and in transit, while Azure networking controls help secure communication between users and Azure-hosted workloads.

By leveraging Azure's security capabilities, organizations can protect sensitive creative content and maintain a secure Autodesk Maya environment in alignment with the Security principles of the Azure Well-Architected Framework.

Cost optimization

Cost Optimization focuses on ways to reduce unnecessary expenses and improve operational efficiencies. For more information, see Design review checklist for Cost Optimization.

Cost Optimization focuses on aligning infrastructure costs with Autodesk Maya workload requirements. Azure enables organizations to select appropriately sized GPU-enabled virtual machines and resize resources as project demands change, helping avoid overprovisioning. Regular monitoring of resource utilization and implementation of scheduled start and stop operations for non-production environments can further reduce operational expenses.

By leveraging Azure's flexible consumption model, organizations can optimize costs while maintaining the performance required for Maya content creation workflows, in alignment with the Cost Optimization principles of the Azure Well-Architected Framework.

Performance efficiency

Performance Efficiency refers to your workload's ability to scale to meet the demands that users place on it efficiently. For more information, see Design review checklist for Performance Efficiency.

Performance Efficiency focuses on delivering the compute, memory, storage, and GPU resources required to support Autodesk Maya workloads effectively. Azure provides GPU-enabled virtual machines that are optimized for graphics-intensive tasks such as modeling, animation, simulation, viewport interaction, and rendering. You can select and resize virtual machine configurations based on project requirements to maintain responsive application performance and consistent user experience. By leveraging Azure's scalable infrastructure, you can efficiently support demanding Maya workflows while aligning with the Performance Efficiency principles of the Azure Well-Architected Framework.

Scalability

Scalability ensures that Autodesk Maya environments can adapt to changing project requirements and workload demands while maintaining consistent user experience. When you deploy Maya on Azure Virtual Machines, you can scale resources vertically by resizing virtual machines to provide extra CPU, memory, storage, or GPU capacity as production workloads grow in complexity.

Azure offers a range of GPU-enabled virtual machine sizes that support graphics-intensive workflows such as modeling, animation, simulation, grooming, and viewport visualization. As project requirements evolve, administrators can select larger virtual machine configurations to accommodate more complex scenes, higher asset counts, and increased processing demands without redesigning the underlying infrastructure.

The flexibility of Azure enables organizations to align infrastructure resources with production needs, supporting individual artists, project teams, and evolving content creation workflows. This scalability helps organizations respond efficiently to changing business requirements, optimize resource utilization, and maintain productivity throughout the content creation lifecycle while aligning with the Scalability principles of the Azure Well-Architected Framework.

Operational excellence

Operational Excellence covers the operations processes that deploy an application and keep it running in production. For more information, see Design review checklist for Operational Excellence.

Operational Excellence focuses on simplifying the deployment, management, and maintenance of Autodesk Maya environments. Azure provides centralized tools for monitoring, updating, and managing virtual machines, which help administrators maintain a consistent and reliable platform for creative workloads. Use services such as Azure Monitor and Azure Update Manager to track system health, manage updates, and proactively identify problems. By centralizing Maya workloads on Azure, organizations can reduce administrative overhead, streamline operations, and improve overall manageability in alignment with the Operational Excellence principles of the Azure Well-Architected Framework.

Contributors

Microsoft maintains this article. The following contributors from Microsoft originally wrote it:

Principal author:

• Sunita Phanse | Sr. Technical Program Manager

Contributors:

• Sachin Rastogi | Senior Program Manager

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