Vulkan (API)
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| Developer(s) | Khronos Group, developed from AMD's Mantle |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 16 February 2016 |
| Stable release |
1.0.39 / 18 January 2017
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| Development status | Active |
| Operating system | Android, Linux, Tizen, Microsoft Windows |
| Platform | Compatible hardware |
| Type | 3D graphics and compute API |
| Website | Khronos |
| As of | 7 June 2016 |
Vulkan is a low-overhead, cross-platform 3D graphics and compute API first announced at GDC 2015 by the Khronos Group. The Vulkan API was initially referred to as the "next generation OpenGL initiative," or "OpenGL next" by Khronos, but use of those names were discontinued once the Vulkan name was announced. Vulkan is derived from and built upon components of AMD's Mantle API, which was donated by AMD to Khronos with the intent of giving Khronos a foundation on which to begin developing a low-level API that they could standardize across the industry, much like OpenGL.
Like OpenGL, Vulkan targets high-performance realtime 3D graphics applications such as video games and interactive media across all platforms, and can offer higher performance and more balanced CPU/GPU usage, much like Direct3D 12 and Mantle. Other major differences to Direct3D (prior to version 12) and OpenGL are Vulkan being a considerably lower level API and offering parallel tasking. Vulkan also has the ability to render 2D graphics applications, however it is generally suited for 3D. In addition to its lower CPU usage, Vulkan is also able to better distribute work amongst multiple CPU cores.
Vulkan is intended to provide a variety of advantages over other APIs as well as its spiritual predecessor, OpenGL. Vulkan offers lower overhead, more direct control over the GPU, and lower CPU usage. The overall concept and feature set of Vulkan is similar to Direct3D 12 and Mantle.
Intended advantages of Vulkan over previous-generation APIs include:
NVIDIA notes that OpenGL is still a great option for a lot of use-cases, as it does come at a much lower complexity and maintenance burden than Vulkan, while in many cases still providing great overall performance.
At SIGGRAPH 2016, Khronos announced that Vulkan would be getting support for automatic multi-GPU features, similar to what is offered by DirectX 12. Multi-GPU support included in-API removes the need for SLI or Crossfire which requires graphics cards to be of the same model. API multi-GPU instead allows the API to intelligently split the workload among two or more completely different GPUs. For example, integrated GPUs included on the CPU can be used in conjunction with a high-end dedicated GPU for a slight performance boost.
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