Pro VDI™ is BOXX's philosophy towards virtual desktop infrastructure which focuses on optimized configurations that preserve critical application performance for users of graphics intense applications. This article focuses on our new overclocked 8401R-V and its unique, industry leading price/performance advantages over traditional VDI products.
Introducing the new 8401R-V, a 3U overclocked rack mount server engineered by BOXX to exploit the benefits of VDI while matching the performance of bare metal workstations.
Price and Performance
When analyzing VDI performance benchmarks, the delta between virtual workstations and physical machines may not be obvious. This is because much of the data out there is comparing one VDI solution to another. Rarely will you find a virtual workstation compared to a bare metal workstation, because the physical workstation will usually yield more favorable results. We clearly see this in the benchmarks below.
For many organizations, the benefits of VDI (remote access, data security and centralization) outweigh the downside of their CAD users who will have to wait longer for assembly rebuilds or poor interactivity with large 3D architectural assets. The benefits of VDI are real, but in many cases, power users are expected to sacrifice some productivity in order to conform to an organizational migration to virtual desktops.
With BOXX Pro VDI servers, this performance sacrifice is no longer necessary. The 8401R-V takes advantage of the same professional overclocking found in our APEXX workstations. Pro VDI also uses vDGA rather than vGPU. This method allows for faster frame rates in your application viewport while eliminating licensing costs associated with Nvidia GRID Software.
Why Does Overclocking Matter?
Our Pro VDI products are not intended for the task workers in your organization. BOXX builds systems specifically for digital content creators and CAD users running applications like Revit, Solidworks and Maya. Virtually all 3D modeling CAD applications are single threaded (or lightly threaded) meaning that for the most part, they can only make use of a single CPU core. The best way to boost performance and productivity for CAD users is to increase the frequency of the CPU. This becomes an issue in a VDI environment where your only options are to host several users on dual Intel® Xeon® based servers.
Xeon® processors have higher core counts. Typically the higher the core count, the lower the CPU frequency. This drop in CPU frequency will be noticeable, even frustrating, for CAD users migrating to a virtual environment, especially if he or she is accustomed to an Intel® Core™ i7 based workstation which has become the standard choice for those seeking maximum productivity.
The 8401R-V is the only overclocked VDI solution on the market.
The Bottom Line
Keeping your engineers, architects and artists productive is critical to your organization's bottom line. If the decision has been made to fold your power users into a virtualized environment, don't force them into a solution that doesn't address the bottlenecks of their professional applications.
Additional benefits of VDI
Remote workstation access, remote collaboration, data security and centralization are all excellent reasons to consider virtual workstations. Watch the video below for and example VDI scenario.
To get in touch with a BOXX performance specialist, fill out the form here or call 877-877-2699.