Graphics Acceleration Questions for the experts

[bfrizie]

I have a few questions regarding graphics acceleration and am hoping I can get some advice from those of you who have experience with them.

First off, we are looking to increase performance related issues with our View environment. Things like dragging windows from one monitor to the next, scrolling through PDF files with images, and browsing flash based or very busy web pages. We don't do any 3d rendering like autocad or any heavy graphics related work, we just want to improve the overall experience of the View desktops. Many of the complaints we receive seem to be graphics oriented, like dragging a window from one screen to another. Will graphics acceleration improve this?

My next question is related to 3 or more monitors. All of the documentation I have read suggests that you can only benefit from graphics acceleration with a maximum of 2 monitors. Is that correct or am I reading that wrong? It seems like there would be more of a need for graphics acceleration with more monitors.

Excerpt from documentation (any change this has changed?)

Screen Resolution

If you enable the 3D Renderer setting, configure the maximum number of monitors setting for one or two

monitors. You cannot select more than two monitors. The maximum resolution of any one monitor setting is

1920 x 1200 pixels. You cannot configure this value to be higher.

Lastly, would we see any changes with CPU utilization on the hosts since we are offloading graphics related functions to the GPUs instead of CPUs?

[MaxStr · Accepted solution]

I have the GRID K1 card, and it definitely helps with all interface smoothness in general. Scrolling pages doesn't skip anymore, dragging windows around is smoother, and switching between windows is instant. It's just a better experience overall. I haven't compared CPU usage before and after, but the whole point of the GRID card is to off-load processes from the CPU.

As for the maximum resolution, I'm not sure why that setting only goes to 1920x1200, because all the documentation says maximum resolution is 4K (with 2 monitors I believe). My guess is that Horizon View simply gives the graphics control to the ESXi video driver, so it can't force a resolution setting. My Horizon Manager also shows 1920x1200, yet I'm currently sitting in front of an Apple monitor with my VDI fullscreen at 2560x1440, using Blast with GRID acceleration. (I haven't tested 4K because I don't have a 4K monitor)

Also, nvidia has a neat little widget so you can view what processes are currently being offloaded to the GPU. So far I've seen all the browsers, Office, Acrobat

[bfrizie]

Thanks for the reply! Do you have anyone using 3 monitors with the grid card?

[TechMassey]

First, I wish you luck. Many have entered the turbulent waters of VDI and Graphics Acceleration, not all return.

Here is a quick bullet point on your questions and what challenges to look for.

• 1920 x 1200 Resolution Limit - You may have been looking at the Horizon View documentation when you saw that limit. This is not true when using Nvidia GPUs - Link
• vGPU is required - While you do get CPU offloading doing Horizon View hardware acceleration with Nvidia. The user experience will not match up, just have them try Salesforce or any HTML 5 based app.
• vGPU has user limits - Which changes your TCO - Link
• Win 10 requires k140Q vGPU profile or higher (EX: 1GB Profile = 16 users per card for K1) - Link
  • Note, M10 Maxwell vGPU have higher capacities.
• Server Compatibility - Nvidia Kepler and Maxwell Chipsets are only supported on certain servers. Some servers can only use one card - Link
• Multiple Monitors - More than two are not supported with vGPU, this is a known limitation. Nvidia has it listed as a known issue but you can do up to 4K on two monitors depending on GPU.

If you are willing to take the above plunge, it can be an awesome experience. It is just critical that the correct sizing and pre-requisites be identified beforehand.