Table of Contents
Overview
Since the 6th of June, HEVC (H.265) is finally generally available for Azure Virtual Desktop, and also with high quality 4k60 for Cloud PC, too.
This Post will cover some of my Testresults with GPU enabled AVD and CloudPC Workload. Let’s see how smooth the session is performing for the Enduser and check some of the metrics.
Testing
First of all, you should update your Windows App to the Build 2.0.503.0 – because Microsoft added the official additional support for HEVC.
Also, at the moment, HEVC is only supported for Windows App for Windows and with a Desktop Session, so not for published Apps.
Meanwhile, you don’t have to check your Eventlogs for Session-Informations regarding Codecs – Windows App is presenting these useful informations now – here’s an example during a Session with HEVC (H.265) and 60 FPS in a YouTube Video:
My Windows Client Test-Device is a cheap refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad T490 Notebook, Windows 11, Intel i5 CPU, 16 GB RAM, Intel UHD Graphics 620 (Important, which is supporting HEVC H.265 decoding). Absolutely sufficient when using the main-workload from AVD or Windows 365.
Cloud PC & AVD
I had the privelege to test a “Windows 365 Enterprise GPU Max” Machine, which comes with very great specs. A minimum of 16 vCPU, 110 GB RAM and 16 GB of GPU-RAM.
The first positive effect was, directly after deploying the CloudPC via Intune, all the Settings for using and enabling the GPU, including to activate HEVC, were set per default. AND the Regkey to highen up the frame rate (FPS) is also set by default, so you get a full 60 fps out of the box. Nothing to do by the user / admin. You are directly able to use your GPU-workload.
With AVD, you should make some settings with Intune or GPO to enable HEVC and use vGPU for all RDP-traffic. See here for some of my notes.
Since regional capacity is dynamic, Microsoft uses available capacity when and where it’s needed. Sometimes, this might result in GPU Cloud PCs exceeding their license specified minimum specifications. To see your Cloud PC’s GPU specifications, visit the performance tab of Task Manager.
In my case, I was lucky to get a higher machine with a NVIDIA A10 24Q Profile (24 GB GPU RAM).
Seeing HEVC (H.265) in action should look like this. The CPU on the CloudPC is currently doing nothing, as the complete Video-Workload, including 3D, Encode and Decode is shipped by the GPU. The same is for the Client-side, Decoding and 3D also outsourced to the Client-GPU.
Following now some test results from a direct comparison of EVC (H.264) with HEVC (H.265)
1x 5:30 Min 4k 60 FPS Video, Windows App for Windows CloudPC Session Fullscreen, YouTube in Cinema-Mode:
| CloudPC H.264 | CloudPC H.265 | |
| Avg. FPS | 58,01 fps | 59,23 fps |
| Avg. Frame Quality | 89,97 % | 100 % |
| Avg. Bandwidth Consumption | 11,01 Mbit/s | 8,22 Mbit/s |
| Avg. Round Trip Time (RTT) | 11,32 ms | 10,62 ms |
| Total Bandwidth Usage | 3,93 GB | 2,84 GB |
1x 5:30 Min 4k 60 FPS Video, Windows App for Windows AVD Session Fullscreen, YouTube in Cinema-Mode:
| AVD H.264 | AVD H.265 | |
| Avg. FPS | 53,68 fps | 59,11 fps |
| Avg. Frame Quality | 86,31 % | 100 % |
| Avg. Bandwidth Consumption | 11,51 Mbit/s | 8,46 Mbit/s |
| Avg. Round Trip Time (RTT) | 11,44 ms | 10,89 ms |
| Total Bandwidth Usage | 4,32 GB | 2,97 GB |
Summary
It’s definitely worth to use HEVC (H.265) in production and make the switch from EVC. There are lots of cheap possibilities for Client-GPU’s which are supporting HEVC decoding – like my example with Intel UHD Graphics – you don’t have to purchase an expensive one just for decoding.