As a well-developed industrial fabricating method, magnetron sputtering technique has its distinct advantages for the large-scale production. In order to investigate the effect of buffer layer on the forma- tion and thermochromic performances of VO2 films, using RF magnetron sputtering method, we fabri- cated three kinds of buffer layers SiO2, TiO2 and SnO2 on soda lime float-glass. Then according to the reactive DC magnetron sputtering method, VO2 films were deposited. Due to the restriction of heat treat- ment temperature when using soda lime float-glass as substrates, dense rutile phase TiO2 cannot be formed, leading to the formation of vanadium oxide compounds containing Na ions. When using SnO2 as buffer layer, we found that relatively high pure VO2 can be deposited more easily. In addition, com- pared with the effect of SiO2 buffer layer, we observed an enhanced visible transparency, a decreased infrared emissivity, which should be mainly originated from the modified morphology and/or the hetero-structured VO2/SnO2 interface.