[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

> Is the difference between RDP and xforwarding basically RDP is giving you a video of the remote display and sending the mouse clicks + XY position top?

That's not at all how RDP works, that's how VNC works. RDP basically considers your display (and sound, clipboard and devices) as though they were connected to the server. Have a 4k display locally but only some crappy 1024x768 relic connected to the server? Doesn't matter, you can have a 4k desktop. Cut from your local stuff and paste to your remote stuff. Print from a remote program to your local printer. Configuration is just a few checkboxes.