In today’s dynamic work landscape, remote access and virtual desktop solutions have become essential for organizations striving for flexibility and productivity. Citrix has been at the forefront of empowering businesses with innovative technologies, and now, with Intel’s new roadmap of GPU offerings, users can expect even more versatility and performance in their virtual desktop experiences.

Introduction

The collaboration between Citrix and Intel promises a new era of possibilities for customers of Citrix Remote PC Access and Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions. With a focus on delivering superior graphics performance and flexibility, the integration of Intel GPUs, including the Intel Arc Pro and Intel Flex Datacenter GPUs, offers a compelling, license-free alternative to traditional GPU solutions.

Intel Arc and Citrix Remote PC Access

Citrix Remote PC Access revolutionizes the way employees interact with their office workstations, providing a seamless virtual desktop experience from anywhere. Now, with support for a wide range of Intel GPUs, including the latest Intel Arc Pro A50 GPUs, users can enjoy enhanced graphics performance without compromise. 

Intel’s GPUs offer full H.265 and AV1 support, ensuring compatibility with popular applications such as HandBrake, Premiere Pro, and DaVinci Resolve Studio. Additionally, the inclusion of hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding for H.265 444 and AV1 codecs guarantees optimal performance and image quality without the added bandwidth overhead seen with H.264.

Furthermore, Intel’s Ray tracing hardware technology enables compatible software to leverage advanced rendering techniques, enhancing the visual fidelity of applications in Citrix Remote PC sessions. Whether users are in the office, working remotely, or on the go, Citrix HDX ensures the best possible user experience by delivering superior image quality and reduced latency.

More information about the Intel Arc Pro GPUs can be found on Intel’s website:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/discrete-gpus/arc/workstations/a-series/overview.html

Benefits for VDI with Intel Flex Datacenter GPUs

Traditionally, GPUs were associated with graphics-intensive workloads, but the VDI landscape has evolved in recent years. Intel Flex Datacenter GPUs redefine the role of GPUs in virtual desktop environments, offering enhanced performance and scalability across a variety of applications. These GPUs support hardware-assisted GPU virtualization using single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV), eliminating additional virtualization licensing costs and complexity.

Intel’s license-free GPU solution for VDI can reduce the total cost of ownership for VDI deployments, making GPU acceleration more accessible to organizations of all sizes.

According to Intel: “this can act as a catalyst to accelerate the GPU adoption rate in VDI deployments where graphics & encode accelerations are desired/preferred but can often be cost prohibitive.”

With support for all Citrix-supported video codecs in HDX, H.265 444 and AV1 codecs, Intel Flex Datacenter GPUs deliver high-quality imaging with reduced bandwidth requirements, enabling smoother streaming of desktop sessions and higher frame rates.

Intel® Data Center GPU Flex 140 is a 75-watt low-profile PCIe Gen4 GPU card for  accelerating cloud gaming, media processing and delivery, VDI, and AI Visual  Inference applications in data centre servers. Each PCIe card has 2 GPUs, each with eight Xe cores, two media engines and 6GB of GDDR6 memory attached.  Considering a graphics local memory provisioning granularity of ~1GB per virtual GPU, each Flex Series 140 GPU can support up to 12 VDI sessions for a typical knowledge worker persona with low-to-moderate graphics performance requirement per display pixel, making it a compelling solution for high-density VDI Deployment.

The Flex Series 170 GPU is a 150-watt, full-size Gen4 PCIe card that has a single GPU node with 32 Xe cores, two media engines, and 16GB of GDDR6 memory for higher peak performance at the cost of a higher TDP.

Intel® Data Center GPU Flex Series – Overview

Customer Benefits with Intel and Citrix

The integration of Intel’s new generation of GPUs into Citrix environments offers customers more choice and flexibility. With a license-free option and support for a wide range of video codecs, organizations can tailor their virtual desktop solutions to meet their specific requirements. Additionally, Intel’s commitment to performance and innovation is validated by third-party organizations such as Login VSI, whose case study showcases the impressive performance of Intel Datacenter Flex GPUs in VDI deployments.

In conclusion, the collaboration between Citrix and Intel illustrates a new chapter in the evolution of virtual desktop solutions. By leveraging the power of Intel GPUs, organizations can unlock new levels of performance, flexibility, and efficiency in their remote access and virtual desktop environments.

You can read Intel’s companion blog Revolutionizing Virtual Workspaces with Intel Data Center GPUs in Collaboration with Citrix and Cisco here: https://community.intel.com/t5/Blogs/Tech-Innovation/Artificial-Intelligence-AI/Elevating-VDI-with-Intel/post/1578650

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