How to Enhance RDP Performance

Symptom

RDP users have performance issues (bad user experience).

For example:

• Mouse is lagging

• Screen is building up very slow

• Session uses high bandwidth

• Several other performance issues

Problem

There are many different causes that can result in bad performance.

Solution

The following settings can be used as a single option and also in combination.

Basics

• The color depth should be the same on the server, the device, and in the session (best: 32 bit).

• In the BIOS, set the VGA shared memory to 64 MB or more.

Optimizations for a LAN Environment

• Under Sessions > RDP > RDP Global > Performance, edit the settings as follows:

  • Disable Compression. (Increases performance, generates about 30% more traffic)

  • If RemoteFX 8 is available, activate Enable RemoteFX.

  • If RemoteFX 8 is available, set RemoteFX codec mode to "Optimized for LAN".

• If Windows Server 2012 R2 or lower or Windows 8.1 or lower is used: Under Sessions > RDP > RDP Global > Multimedia, activate Enable Video Redirection.

Optimization for a WAN Environment

• Under Sessions > RDP > RDP Global > Performance, edit the settings as follows:

  • Enable Compression. (Generates about 30% less traffic, consumes more local resources)

  • If RemoteFX 8 is available, activate Enable RemoteFX.

  • If RemoteFX 8 is available, set RemoteFX codec mode to "Optimized for WAN".