Apples-to-Apples Comparison: VMware Horizon Gaming vs. Bare-Metal Gaming

I have now played various games that are graphically demanding and the most graphically realistic games. Using VMware Horizon Direct Connect and converting the server into a PC, here is my as honest answer as I can give. First of all, I would say that I don’t consider myself a professional gamer.What attracted me to the world of gaming was the desire to explore the limits of VMware Horizon Direct Connect and vSphere, and to see how far they could be pushed.

When I played games on a PC using an HDR monitor, the most surprising aspect for me was the color comparison with Horizon. The colors were much more vivid and it was much more beautiful to watch, and when HDR was turned on, some games were incredibly good. And this made it very difficult to switch to VMware Horizon, even though I opened up more shortcomings.
My mouse had a delay of more than a few seconds when I used Horizon, and even when I passed the Bluetooth adapter through the VMware Horizon client. This delay varied and I really couldn’t understand what influenced it. Also, to my greatest surprise, my keyboard also had a delay of a few seconds, which I wouldn’t have expected.

Simply playing games on a PC is much more enjoyable, and the parts that seemed difficult to me in the games were very easy. For example, playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 over Horizon, where I had to control a bomb, or in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which involved running on walls. How I hated those things and how I had to spend more than 20 minutes running on walls to get somewhere. Because I kept falling down.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that VMware Horizon is poor or bad. On the contrary, the fact that I was able to play the most graphically demanding computer games at maximum graphic settings, which currently exist, on a 49″ monitor with a 5120×1440 resolution and additionally on a 3440×1440 monitor, both in full screen, is an extremely good result. Moreover, this enterprise software is not intended for gaming purposes, but rather for regular office work, and it performs exceptionally well in that context.

Speaking of whether Windows runs better on bare metal or on vSphere. In my opinion, Windows runs better on vSphere. If games didn’t start or crashed in VMs, the same problem would have been on bare metal, and when I reported somewhere, I always got the response that the fault was because I was running in a VM. But actually, it was never about that. Today’s games and applications don’t know how to use Multi Core and RAM as well as VMware ESXi does. VMware developers have done a very powerful job of squeezing that last drop of juice out of every lemon so you can run many more VMs. Also, on ESXi, my server takes a little less electricity compared to bare metal Windows.

Unfortunately, there is no Sound Card with HDMI output and Dolby Atmos support so I could get Surround Sound over VMware Horizon. This was a cool journey for me, but in conclusion, I prefer a PC with an HDR monitor over VMware Horizon because those colors and screen image are incomparably good. Also, VMware Horizon is limited to 60Hz, currently, my monitor has 144Hz and I honestly don’t want any monitor or screen that is below 120 Hz. The eyes rest better.

I hope you found reading these articles as exciting as I did playing with them

Although I initially thought playing over VMware Horizon was an amazing experience and couldn’t understand why others disagreed with me, I’ve come to realize that you don’t know what you’re missing until you’ve seen and experienced it for yourself. Only then can you truly understand what others were talking about.

Last but not least, I want to thank the VMware vExpert Community and the Scottish VMUG community, who were part of this journey. You guys made the journey more enjoyable, and your input and advice had a significant impact on this journey.

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