PCoIP Ultra¶

The Graphics Agent for Windows provides support for PCoIP Ultra. PCoIP Ultra is optimized for truly lossless support with bit-exact color accuracy and preservation of content detail at the highest frame rates.

PCoIP Ultra protocol enhancements propels our industry-recognized performance into the future of remote computing, with faster, more interactive experience for users of remote workstations working with high-resolution content.

PCoIP Ultra now defaults to "Auto Offload" on Graphics agent machines, provided that both the client machines and the agent machines are capable of supporting CPU Offload as well as GPU Offload. Additionally, YUV Chroma subsampling defaults to 4:2:0. This ensures higher framerates of graphics and optimized motion content, while ensuring efficient utilization of bandwidth.

For additional detail on PCoIP Ultra technical requirements for various use cases and troubleshooting steps, refer to KB 2109: PCoIP Ultra Troubleshooting.

When to Configure PCoIP Ultra¶

PCoIP Ultra is appropriate for users with the following requirements:

Auto Offload: Achieves the best balance between color accuracy and network efficiency. This setting is appropriate for work-from-home or WAN content creators who require optimized delivery of high resolution content, including video playback, while still achieving build-to-lossless color accuracy.

CPU Offload: Provides efficient scaling across multicore CPUs, leveraging AVX2 instruction sets. Appropriate for users that require CPU-optimized delivery of 4K UHD, high-framerate video playback and build-to-lossless color accuracy. It is also useful when GPU encoding resources must be reserved for video encoding applications, typically in LAN environments.

GPU Offload: PCoIP encoding is always offloaded to a GPU. Appropriate for users who demand the highest possible CPU efficiency.

Requirements¶

To take advantage of PCoIP Ultra, you need:

• An Anyware agent (any supported version)

• An Anyware Software Client (any supported version)

  Anyware Tera2 Zero Clients do not support PCoIP Ultra

  PCoIP Ultra is only available through Anyware Software Clients.

• CPU offload requires CPU support for the AVX2 instruction set on both the agent and client machines.

• GPU offload requires an NVIDIA graphics card that supports NVENC on the agent machine.

Configuring PCoIP Ultra¶

PCoIP Ultra features can be set by setting an Ultra mode from the GPO settings.

For more information on enabling GPO variables, refer to [Configuring the Graphics Agent for Windows](../../../admin-guide/configuring/configuring.md).

The following Ultra modes are supported:

CPU Offload Turn on PCoIP Ultra CPU Offload. 
CPU offload requires CPU support for the AVX2 instruction set on both the remote host and client. The Anyware Zero client is not supported. CPU offload is recommended for 4K UHD resolutions with video playback requirements of 30 fps (or more), and the highest possible image quality and color accuracy.

GPU Offload Turn on PCoIP Ultra GPU Offload. 
GPU Offload is recommended when the CPU impact of pixel encoding should be minimized.

Automatic Offload Turn on PCoIP Ultra Auto Offload.
This setting allows PCoIP to automatically switch between CPU and GPU Offload modes; CPU offload is used by default to provide the best image fidelity, and GPU offload is used during periods of high display activity to provide improved frame rates and bandwidth optimization.

This setting is only effective if the remote host and client endpoints are capable of both CPU and GPU Offload.

All PCoIP Ultra settings take effect on the next PCoIP session. No configuration is required on the Anyware Software Client.

To disable PCoIP Ultra, set the Ultra GPO setting to disabled.