Hm, are you using native Windows RDP? That one has pretty low latency even in the default configuration (assuming a capable client).

Yes, I'm using Microsoft's RDP client (which on Mac is now called "The Windows App") to connect to an Azure Virtual Desktop.

My home internet connection pretty low latency (wired) and pretty high throughput (gigabit).

It's not absolute torture using the AVD, but it's definitely clunky.

For me using Microsoft's RDP client to a Windows machine a few states over is rather frustrating; using a slower machine locally was much better.

Windows RDP used to be great, but now they figured they'd put animations and transparencies all over the place, so it's become very frustrating to use. Even over a local Gigabit network.

You can turn off effects to restore amazing performance (I know on the Mac version it’s the “optimize for retina displays” option).

I'm talking about effects on the server side. Launching edge for the first time is a major pain, for example.

Edge has a ton of visual noise by default. For me, it's pretty disorienting.

I watched a colleague use VSCode earlier today and was kinda shocked at the amount of pop-ups, and also how they'd cover the active pane, including what the developer was typing.

My attention system isn't built for modern Microsoft apps, I think.