The most common type of employee. They require a PC to do their job, usually a basic desktop or laptop system with office productivity applications and Internet connectivity.

Knowledge Workers are the most typical type of employee found in every business. While the work they do is valuable, they don’t need a powerful PC to get the job done. With the latest advancements in computing hardware, software and communication technologies, it’s now possible to give every employee with a robust computing experience, on par with a physical system, from the Cloud.

One GPU, Multiple Virtual Machines

In a Shared GPU model every employee still feels like they have their own PC, but in fact all of the applications and processing hardware are centrally located in the data center. The employees are actually working on a virtual machine that they access via a compatible thin or zero client.

For companies looking to take advantage of the Shared GPU model to support multiple Knowledge Workers, AMD FirePro™ S-Series server cards support Microsoft ® RemoteFX and VMware ESX 5.5.

Requires everything a Knowledge Worker needs and more. They need more powerful PCs to run more specialized applications used for design, 3D modeling, simulation and more. Power Users are typically professionals in the Design, Engineering and Simulation industries.

GPU Accelerated Applications on Virtual Machines

Thanks to the tremendous processing power of the GPU, Power Users working with specialized applications can be transitioned from a physical tower or mobile workstation to a virtual machine that resides in the data center. These Power Users are working with more graphics intensive applications than the typical Knowledge Worker, applications that perform best on a discrete GPU.

The ideal type of Power User who can easily transition to virtual machine is an engineer, designer or modeler currently working on a tower or mobile workstation. Depending on the applications and workload, these professionals can be transitioned via a Shared GPU model (1 GPU to many users) or to a Dedicated GPU model (1 GPU per user).

However, there are various levels of Power Users, with some needing more processing horsepower than others. With AMD FirePro™ S-Series graphics cards, and virtualization technologies from Citrix®, Microsoft® and VMware®, IT can find the right mix of hardware and software to meet a variety of end user needs.

For companies looking to take advantage of the Shared GPU model to support multiple mid-range Power Users, AMD FirePro™ S-Series server cards support Microsoft ® RemoteFX and VMware ESX 5.5.

For companies looking to take advantage of the Dedicated GPU model to support mid-range to ultra-high Power Users, AMD FirePro™ S-Series server cards support VMware ESXi 5.1 and Citrix XenDesktop® and XenApp.

Dedicated GPU or direct GPU pass-through means 1 GPU per user or virtual machine. This model is best for professionals who traditionally have worked on a physical desktop workstation with a higher performing discrete GPU.

Power Users are typically professionals in the Design, Engineering and Manufacturing industries. These users tend to work across multiple applications, and large models and datasets will need a dedicated GPU assigned to them that resides in a server in the data center. The Power user will have direct access to the virtual machine on the GPU, and will not be required to share GPU processing power with any other user. These types of users tend to spend more of their day rendering 3D models and designs.

To support Power Users with a virtualized workstation, in a one GPU per user model, AMD FirePro™ S-Series server cards are compatible with hypervisors from both Citrix and VMware.

AMD FirePro™ S-Series server cards support VMware ESXi for Dedicated GPU deployments for Power Users.

If your organization prefers to create virtualized workstations for Power Users with Citrix®, AMD FirePro S-Series server cards support Citrix XenServer™ and XenApp®.

The Shared GPU model enables one professional graphics card to support multiple users/virtual machines at once. This model is best for average knowledge workers using basic desktops or laptops and office apps, or professionals working with CAD/CAM/CAE apps that require an entry to mid-range discrete GPU.

To support Knowledge Workers or Power Users in a Shared GPU model, AMD FirePro™ S-Series server cards are compatible with virtualized desktop and workstation technologies from Microsoft® and VMware.

Scalable Performance

For companies looking to take advantage of the Shared GPU model to support multiple Knowledge Workers with Microsoft® RemoteFX and Hyper-V, AMD FirePro™ S-Series server cards are compatible and are capable of supporting up to 70 users from one server card.

If your organization prefers virtualize systems for Knowledge Workers with VMware® vSGA technology, AMD FirePro S-Series server cards support VMware ESXi and can scale to support between 16-23 users per server card.

With the Shared GPU model, professionals working in architecture, design, engineering and manufacturing can also be supported.

The Power User working with small to large models and datasets typically needs a dedicated GPU. However, due to the nature of their work they may not need the power of a dedicated GPU all day long. Unlike a Power User, these professionals only spend a small part of their day rendering models and designs. As such, extra graphics processing power is available that could be shared with another user working at a comparable level.