AMD's Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise drivers get a fresh coat of paint every quarter, and today the company is unwrapping the 18.Q3 version of its supporting software. The headlining feature of this quarter's release is AMD Remote Workstation. This feature works with Citrix's XenDesktop Virtual Delivery Agent software to let users tap into the power of their Radeon Pro WX 7100 or Radeon Pro WX 9100-equipped workstations over the internet using Citrix's Receiver app.
AMD says the Remote Workstation feature is tailored for the inherently higher-latency environments of virtual desktops by giving Citrix VDA direct and secure access to rendered frames from a Radeon Pro card's frame buffer. The company claims that direct access cuts down some of the frustrating click-to-response lag that might come from accessing one's remote workstation over a low-quality network connection. The feature will be available for no extra cost from the Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise driver to compatible systems.
The 18.Q3 driver also includes support for using AMD's ProRender back end in the cloud with virtualized instances of Maxon's Cinema 4D, Solidworks, Blender, Maya, and 3DS Max. That cloud rendering approach takes advantage of AMD's Multiuser GPU, or MxGPU, technology. As ever, AMD touts the deterministic performance that comes from hardware-managed virtualization with this technology and no-cost access to the feature on Radeon Pro cards in companies' racks.
Finally, the 18.Q3 driver lets workstation pros manually crank up the fan speeds on their Radeon Pro cards so that they can achieve the optimal balance between progressive hearing loss and performance. The fact that boosting fan speeds can increase performance should surprise nobody, but the feature is likely to be welcome for pros in environments with high ambient temperatures or multi-GPU setups where airflow is compromised by close spacing of multiple cards. Apparently, using third-party utilities to achieve this boost in the past could void the warranty on users' expensive ISV-certified cards, so folks who need this feature will likely be happy campers.
The 18.Q3 driver should be available for download today.
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