NVIDIA GRID VIRTUAL PC AND
VIRTUAL APPS
GPU-ACCELERATED PERFORMANCEFOR THE VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE

Desktop virtualization has been around for manyyears, but some organizations still struggle todeliver a user experience that stands up to whatworkers have enjoyed on physical PCs. While
IT has traditionally settled for a “good enough”
user experience, today’s workforce is moretech savvy and increasingly made up of digital
natives who expect a dynamic, multimedia-richexperience.
NVIDIA GRID® Virtual PC (GRID vPC) and GRID® VirtualApps (GRID vApps) improve virtual desktops andapplications for every user, with proven performance
built on NVIDIA® GPUs for exceptional productivity,security, and IT manageability. The virtualization
software divides NVIDIA GPU resources, so the GPU
can be shared across multiple virtual machines
running any application.
Here are three powerful reasons to deploy GRID vPCand GRID vApps in your data center.

1

Reason 1: Every App Is a Graphics App.
Even simple productivity applications found in
Microsoft Windows 10 (Win 10), Office 2016, webbrowsers, and streaming video can benefit fromGPU acceleration. A recent study showed thatthe number of applications that use graphics
acceleration has doubled since 2012. Today, over
60 percent of enterprise users work with at least
one of these applications.1

The number of graphics
accelerated applications hasdoubled since 2012.¹

Traditional desktop and laptop PCs boost application
performance with embedded or integrated GPUs.
However, when making the transition from physical tovirtual, IT has traditionally left the computer graphics
burden—such as from DirectX and OpenGL workloads

Data from Lakeside Software’s SysTrack Community, 2017.
NVIDIA GRID VIRTUAL PC AND VIRTUAL APPS | Solution Overview | DEC19

and video streaming—to be handled by a server CPU.
This has caused a performance bottleneck that limits
scale and compromises the user experience. Now, IT
departments can take advantage of GPU technology
to deliver a virtual desktop experience that’s as goodas a physical device.

Reason 2: Be Prepared for the “New Normal.”

Information workers, designers and engineers canrealize up to a 42% increase in productivity throughthe use of multiple displays.²
Knowledge workers have changed the way theywork. In today’s fast-paced, digital world, technology
has changed information accessibility. Knowledge
workers have multiple devices and expect access tothe applications they need, anytime, with seamlessexperience between those devices. The “new normal”
includes multiple devices, multiple 4K resolution
monitors, and consistent performance. No longer
used only by professionals in the financial services
or healthcare industries, multi-monitor setups havequickly become an affordable and effective way toboost productivity.
At the same time, software developers and electronic
design automation (EDA) engineers and designers
that require Linux-based development environments
can also increase productivity by utilizing the likenative experience that GRID vPC provides.

Reason 3: Improve Density while Increasing
User Satisfaction.
Today’s virtual desktops and applications requiregraphics acceleration for a native-PC experience.
With NVIDIA GRID, you can deliver GPU-acceleration
to every virtualized user and support up to 32
concurrent users on a GPU card.3 Because work thatwas typically done by the CPU has been offloaded to
the GPU, the user has a much better experience andmore users can be supported.
NVIDIA developed a benchmarking tool based on amethodology that measures key aspects of the userexperience. The results of the testing showed that aGPU-enabled VDI environment delivered better user
experience with up to 3X improved end user latency
and up to 1.5X more remoted frames. Despite
being loaded with 33 percent more users than theCPU-only virtual desktop environment, the GPUaccelerated virtual desktop environment provided anincomparably better experience.4

33% more users can be supported with a better
Win10 VDI user experience with a GPU.4
NVIDIA GRID enables organizations to extend the reachof their virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) investmentand give every user a native-PC experience that meetsthe needs of today’s graphic-intensive applications.

Cost Effectively Scale VDI Across YourEnterprise With NVIDIA GRID
For a limited time, NVIDIA is offering discounts on
GRID software purchased with NVIDIA GPUs. First
year of a 3-year subscription is free, and first two
years of a 5-year is subscription fee.
Contact your NVIDIA sales specialist for details.

John Peddie Research. October 16, 2017. Jon Peddie Research: Multiple Displays Can Increase Productivity By 42%.
This assumes the NVIDIA® M10 GPU with 1 GB frame buffer per user.
4
NVIDIA. Quantifying the Impact of Virtual GPUs: See how NVIDIA Benchmarks UX in VMware Virtualized Environments.
Design and Visualization Whitepaper. September 2018.
2
3

NVIDIA GRID VIRTUAL PC AND VIRTUAL APPS | Solution Overview | DEC19

NVIDIA GRID Delivers Productivity Without Boundaries.
Native-PC Experience

Better Server Density

Utilize NVIDIA GRID software with GPUs todeliver responsive, virtual workspaces, that
perform like native PCs, to every user. Now,
mobile professionals and knowledge workers
can enjoy virtual desktops that are optimizedfor Windows 10 and office applications.

Bypass the challenges of modern applications
and operating systems such as Windows 10that are more graphics intensive and resultin lower server density of VDI deployments.
Increase user density by 33 percent anddeliver a better user experience with NVIDIA
virtual GPU solutions.4,5Multiple Monitor

Linux OS Applications

Support multiple HD displays and up totwo 4K-resolution displays to expand yourworkspace, enhance multi-tasking, andincrease productivity.

Deliver the benefits of like-native
performance of VDI environments to softwaredevelopers and EDA designers who rely on aLinux-based development environment.

Video Performance

Investment Protection

Optimize video performance and scalability
through hardware encode/decode via
NVIDIA NVENC. Support the latest
video-compression standards, including
HEVC/H.265 codec.

Support increasing graphical requirementsof Windows 10 and modern productivity
applications, with continuous innovationdelivered through every vGPU software
release.

NVIDIA GRID Feature List
Configuration and Deployment

GRID vPC

GRID vApps

Desktop Virtualization
Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) App Hosting
RDSH Desktop Hosting
Windows OS Support
Linux OS Support

6

GPU Pass-Through Support7
Bare Metal Support8
NVIDIA Graphics Driver
Guaranteed Quality-of-Service Scheduling9Display
Maximum Hardware Rendered Display
Maximum Resolution

GRID vPC

GRID vApps

Four HD, Two 4K ,One 5K15

One105120 x 288015

1280 x 1024

6

Lakeside Software, Inc. “Elevating User Experience Through GPU Acceleration: A Windows 10 versus Windows 7 Analysis.”
Lakeside Software White Paper. 2017.
Support starts with the NVIDIA virtual GPU software March 2018 release (version 6.0).
7GPU pass-through is only supported on 1:1 profiles.
8
Only NVIDIA® Tesla® M6 hardware is supported as a primary display device.
9Scheduling options include fixed share, equal share, and best effort/time slicing.
10GRID vApps supports one 1280x1024 display from the GPU card. However, Citrix XenApp renders to an offscreen buffer,
so it can support multiple software-rendered displays at higher resolutions.
56

NVIDIA GRID VIRTUAL PC AND VIRTUAL APPS | Solution Overview | DEC19

Data Center Management

GRID vPC

GRID vApps

GRID vPC

GRID vApps

GRID vPC

GRID vApps

Host-, Guest-, and Application-Level Monitoring

11Live Migration6
SupportNVIDIA Direct Enterprise-Level Technical Support
Maintenance Releases, Defect Resolutions, and Security
Patches for up to Three Years12
Advanced Professional Features
CUDA/OpenCL
Graphics Features and APIs

13

GRID vPC

GRID vApps

GRID vPC

GRID vApps

NVENC
OpenGL Extensions, Including WebGL
DirectXProfiles14
Max Frame Buffer Supported
Available Profiles

2 GB24 GB

60B, 1B, 2B

24A, 16A, 12A, 8A, 6A,
4A, 3A, 2A, 1A

GPUs

GRID vPC

GRID vApps

Best Density and Performance for the Knowledge Worker

M10, T4

M10, T4

P6

P66

NVIDIA Virtual GPU Hardware

Best for Blade Form Factor

Application-level monitoring is only available starting with the NVIDIA virtual GPU August 2017 release (version 5.0).
Listed support is available with an active Support, Update, and Maintenance (SUMs) contract.
13
CUDA/OpenCL is only supported for NVIDIA Maxwell™ 8A profile on NVDIA GRID 4.x and earlier releases.
14Profiles supported have dependency on GPU selected. For more information, read the NVIDIA virtual GPU software user guide.
15
5K resolution support starting with NVIDIA virtual GPU December 2019 (10.0) release.
11
12For more information visit www.nvidia.com/grid© 2019 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, NVIDIA GRID, Tesla, and Quadro are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA
Corporation. All company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing,availability, and specifications are all subject to change without notice. DEC19