What is vGPU?
vGPU provides the ability to virtualize the GPU of a graphics card, specifically an NVIDIA K card. Most applications in VDI environments do not require a GPU; however, for CAD, engineering, and medical applications, GPUs are typically required. For more information on vGPU take a look at this article.
Citrix
Citrix recently announced vGPU support for mixed environments - Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp on the front-end and VMware vSphere on the back end. The requirements for vGPU are VMware vSphere 6 and Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp 7.6.
Citrix has supported Nvidia vGPU for over a year now with the use of Citrix XenServer and XenDesktop/XenApp. For mixed environments, vGPU did not work and vSGA, software based GPU virtualization (DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2.1), was the alternative. While this worked for some GPU applications, it was not ideal and it did not provide hardware-based virtualization. The workaround for this was to dedicate the GPU to a specific virtual desktop, a solution that is not at all scalable.
VMware
VMware also released vGPU support for vSphere 6, which means you can now virtualize the GPU for Horizon View. This is a welcome feature to the Horizon solution. The requirements for vGPU for VMware are vSphere 6 and Horizon 6.1.
Summary
The use of vGPU is definitely a plus in a mixed environment with a Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop front end and VMware vSphere as the back end, and a welcome feature on the VMware side. Please contact your Gotham Account Manager for more information on these solutions.