In a client-server architecture, data transmission performance enhancing features are described, including a color quality approach and a packet shaping approach. A method includes a color quality data transformation including: selecting a quality level to apply to a set of image data having a number of significant color bits defining an initial number of possible colors; applying a pixel mask to the set of image data, the initial number of possible colors reduced to a smaller number of possible colors as a function of the quality level; loading the set of image data into an output buffer; and sending the set of image data from the output buffer to a display engine. Another method includes a packet shaping data structure transformation including if i) a total network time, defined by a total time of requests in a pending request queue, is equal to or greater than a current round trip time, defined by twice a current latency, and ii) a total request time, defined by a sum of a total time of requests in the pending request queue and a total time of requests in a transmitted request queue, minus the total network time is equal to or less than half a preset limit, then forming a shaped packet by associating a first data portion with a second data portion and a header.