Streaming and Virtual Hosted Desktop Study: Phase 2

Intel IT conducted an internal technology evaluation to determine how using the most up-to-date hardware and software, such as Intel® Xeon® processor X5570 and Microsoft Windows 7, affects server and network utilization as well as the performance of streamed and virtual hosted desktop (VHD) compute models. This study followed a previous investigation, published in 2008, that compared streaming and VHD.1 Evaluation indicates that streaming provides better server loading and a more positive overall user experience with new Intel® Xeon® processors.

Click here for read the paper

Here you can find some interesting points:

• For basic office productivity applications, systems based on dual-core processors with streaming provided a 26 percent better WorldBench 5 performance benchmark score than VHD.
• Streaming server utilization was consistently low. Streaming used about 1 percent of the processor while VHD used from 10 to 70 percent or more for up to 40 PCs.
• A richer graphical user interface(GUI) with more features in Microsoft Windows 7 contributed to higher cumulative network traffic for both streaming and VHD, up to a 57 percent increase in traffic for 20 users.
• Using WorldBench 5 tests as the primary indicator, local computing using the latest technology provided the best user experience.