Fast Remote Desktop for Windows-Mac

[TeslaK20]

Hello.
I have a powerful Windows desktop, and I will need to operate it from my Mac laptop. What is the fastest remote desktop solution which will allow me to edit videos without lag? Cost is not much of a problem, I need something good.
Thanks

 

[Dethroy]

Would recommend Jump Desktop. Using it myself and we've been using it at work with great success for almost 3 years now. Has never failed me.

Edit: abefore buying a rdp client, you may want give Apple's native one (Screen Sharing) a try.

 

[AsRock]

Maybe RealVNC although it's payware, how ever there are others like TightVNC. A typical search of VNC will pop up a few just make sure it's legit.

 

[Aquinus]

Maybe RealVNC although it's payware, how ever there are others like TightVNC. A typical search of VNC will pop up a few just make sure it's legit.

This but, if you want lag free, 1GBe might be pushing it. 10GBe would probably fit the bill but is going to be expensive for a 10GBe Thunderbolt adapter and a PCI-E card for the tower.

 

[AsRock]

This but, if you want lag free, 1GBe might be pushing it. 10GBe would probably fit the bill but is going to be expensive for a 10GBe Thunderbolt adapter and a PCI-E card for the tower.

True, but he does say

Cost is not much of a problem.

 

[TeslaK20]

Could you explain what 1 GBe and 10 GBe are and how they relate to remote desktop?

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

That is your ethernet card speed. Most of them found on computers and laptops is 1Gigabit speed or 1GBe. 10GBe is found mostly on server boards or expensive add on card. Your ethernet speed is important to ensure smooth deskstop operation as you are basically streaming your deskstop like monitor which is often done on a dvi or hdmi cable.

 

[TeslaK20]

Oh. I checked and it seems that indeed my ethernet card only supports 1GBe. But will getting a new network card help if my internet speed only goes up to 15 MbS? (As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is the physical limit of my connection - there is only one ISP in my area and the line only supports speeds up to 15MbS)

 

[Aquinus]

Oh. I checked and it seems that indeed my ethernet card only supports 1GBe. But will getting a new network card help if my internet speed only goes up to 15 MbS? (As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is the physical limit of my connection - there is only one ISP in my area and the line only supports speeds up to 15MbS)

Is the Windows box not on your local network? If it's not, then you're already out of options. RDP over the internet is always slow for this kind of thing. You also never mentioned that the Windows box wasn't local.

 

[TeslaK20]

The Mac laptop and the windows desktop are on different networks. I have installed JumpDesktop and it was successful, but in that test case the laptop was connected to a Wi-Fi network which ultimately was a split-off from the same ethernet cable.

 

[Nobody99]

I tried this a few months ago and today I tried again and confirmed my results. I tried watching video over 1GbE using VNC and RDP and the utilization was 15% max which translates to 150 Mbps and it can't go any higher because RDP and VNC just don't support it. They weren't designed for such use and that is why this will never work.

They only way I can think of is using virtualization i.e. using VMware Workstation and then connecting to it using Player or Workstation. Of course this means that you will have lower GPU performance because you would rely on hardware acceleration provided by VMware which on my PC causes my guest VMs to freeze especially when I am running more than one VM with hardware acceleration enabled, it is a bug which has been present since at the least 12 version. I don't know if VMware ESXi supports 3D acceleration.

There is also NoMachine which is free and it is supposed to be very good with audio and video stuff, you should check it out, but I wouldn't hold my breath.