Running graphics apps using a terminal services session...

[Brad Pears]

I have been asked by our owner to look into providing a server that is
capable of providing multiple sessions for use by some of our drafting
people.

We use software called "Softplan" to produce drawings for the log homes we
produce.

I talked to the tech support people at Softplan and they mentioned that
Softplan relies heavily on the CPU and graphics card.

I was going to look into the purchase of an additional higher end DELL
server specifically to host the terminal services sessions for the design
users - and NOTING else. It would be their machine.

However, i found out from DELL that none of their servers come with an AGP
port (accelerated graphics port) and hence we could installa high end
graphics card - required by the software.

However, they do have a 'Precision' workstation line that is geared for the
higher end graphics/3D applications that does have an AGP port.

My question is this... Does anyone have any experience in running multiple
graphics applications on a terminal server ( I was planning on going to
Windows 2003 server) where a high end video card is a requirement?

I have no idea how a terminal server session would handle multiple uses of a
video card. How does it work now? Does the RDP client rely heavily on the
video card in the local machine or does it rely heavily on the video card in
the actual server??

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Brad

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Heavy graphics applications are generally not very good
applications to run on Terminal Services, because of the frequent
screen updates. You will need a very high bandwidth connection,
and performance will probably still not be very good.

The graphics data sent from the server to the client in a TS
session is generated by the operating system, using a "virtual
video driver". So it does not matter which video card is installed
on the server.