GRID vGPU Explained

[HardOCP News]

PC and workstation users have long relied on NVIDIA graphics. It’s thanks to their ability to do many tasks at once—or in parallel—that people can use complex video and graphics applications. Now, as tablets and smartphones let workers get stuff done away from their desks, a new technology is emerging—our GRID vGPU technology. NVIDIA GRID virtualization technology gives people access to graphics-intensive applications on any connected device. Engineers in the head office can connect with those on a job site, sharing large files with detailed plans for a big construction project. Doctors can get patient medical information on a tablet from any room in a hospital. Architects can share design ideas in the homes of clients, with no loss of fidelity or detail.

 

[Traciatim]

Sooo, it's shadowplay for you desktop apps with a business-ey name?

 

[w00t69]

It allows you to 3d accelerate virtual machines. That's it.

 

[Demon10000]

It allows you to 3d accelerate virtual machines. That's it.

Grid is a bit fancier than that.

Assuming the Hypervisor allows it, you can pass through any GPU to a VM - doesn't matter if it's AMD, nVidia, Intel...whatever.

What makes grid so powerful is that you can carve up the GPU cores and assign them to individual machines. So now, instead of having a 1:1 vm to GPU ration, you can actually have one GPU shared across multiple VMs. Got a guy running some cad software -- give him some more cores than the guy running something a bit less intense.

For 1:1 scenarios, where you're not splitting the cores up for multiple VMs, Grid isn't the best solution...

 

[Red Falcon]

This is really cool technology.
I hope this takes off, as there are a lot of places that could really benefit from it.