DirectX vs Vulkan: Battle of the Modern Graphics APIs
Apr. 25, 2024Microsoft’s DirectX and Khronos Group’s Vulkan are two populargraphics APIs that most game developers use today. Basically, Vulkan and DirectX facilitate the proper allocation of hardware resources (CPU and GPU) so that your game can run the way they do, with high frame rates and quick render times. But, how do these two graphics APIs, Vulkan and DirectX, fare against each other? Which is the better one for playing games? Let’s find out.
Vulkan vs DirectX: History & Development
First, let’s discuss the development and history to show you the importance of a graphics API such as DirectX and Vulkan.
In the start, DirectX was developed by a team at Microsoft who were essentially working towards increased adoption by game developers, so that the Windows-based PCs would have games for its users. Before DirectX came along, developers back then preferred to make games for DOS and did not intend to release new titles for Windows.
This was back when Windows 95 was going to come out. Apart from DOS games, console gaming was also steadily growing. DirectX 1.0 wasreleased in September 1995and was referred to asWindows Game SDK.
“Essentially it’s called DirectX because it was designed to bypass the operating system, to push Windows aside, get it out of memory, get rid of all the garbage competing with games for resources, and just let the games run.” – Alex St John, Mastermind behind DirectX
Alex St John, part of the DirectX team, revealed in aninterviewthat Microsoft had to persistently persuade game developers to start using DirectX. Their concerns were listened to and later utilized as integral feedback toimprove gaming on Windowsso that developers would actually make new games for the operating system being used bymillions.
There were some wild marketing stunts made during the inception of DirectX to attract the gaming industry towards using the API and motivate them to make Windows PC games.
With DirectX, game developers could utilize the hardware of the PC without the OS bothering them. DirectSound (responsible for audio processing), DirectPlay (that handled in-game communications, and DirectDraw (graphics rendering) were all part of DirectX 1.0, which was referred to as “Game SDK” or “Project Manhattan” back then. Today, DirectX is known to be a collection of APIs and it is widely used for many games. DirectX 12 is the latest version, but many games also use DirectX 11. You can understand the difference betweenDirectX 11 and DirectX 12in our dedicated explainer.
Speaking of Vulkan, its foundation can be traced back to the introduction of American chipmaker AMD’s Mantle API. AMD, along with DICE, worked to create Mantle. It was used in games such asSniper Elite III,Battlefield 4, andCivilization: Beyond Earth.
Vulkan was touted to havebetter performancethan DirectX11. Moreover, there were claims to improve performance in CPU-bottlenecked situations. More game engines started to use Mantle as an API. However, the adoption wasn’t so strong even with all the advantages. Later on, AMD gave the Mantle API (as a “donation”) to theKhronos Groupwho later used it to develop a whole new API.
Akey differencein Vulkan compared to DirectX is that it is across-platformAPI (desktop and mobile). The design features of Vulkan, such as the reduced “driver overhead” eating up valuable performance, were part of the key improvements found in the newest DirectX 12 implementation.
Both DirectX and Vulkan have improved drastically over the last five years and have their own advantages. So, let’s discuss them and compare the performance of DirectX vs Vulkan in several games of today.
Vulkan is said to use the hardware resources of your PC more efficiently. So, the CPU, GPU, and RAM usage here is said to be more “balanced” as compared to DirectX 12. Vulkan is a lower-level API, and it is open source. Plus, it iscross-platformso developers can save time if they want to release their title on both PC and mobile platforms. However, some also say that Vulkan ismore complexto use, which can increase the overall time taken to develop something as compared to other APIs.
From the perspective of a developer, Vulkan being open-source and cross-platform makes it quite appealing to use. With that, there is also a ton of educational material to learn Vulkan if someone is new to graphics and game development. Some even call the Vulkan API to be easier and cleaner to use, with better documentation as compared to DirectX. In the end, some games choose to provide both APIs to select within the game.
By the way, DirectX is used for Windows PCs and Xbox gaming consoles. But Vulkan is available to use on Linux, Windows, and mobile platforms. Nintendo Switch has a Nvidia Tegra GPU, which is also known to support Vulkan. By the way, according to thisgame optimization and portingstory of Detroit Become Human, it is said that PlayStation gaming consoles havebetter APIs(described as very direct and has very low overhead) than anything on PC as those are dedicated machines made for gaming.
Now, let’s consider the perspective of a general consumer, like you and me who play video games. If there is no choice of graphics API, then the user has to play whatever the game uses. But if there is an option, the performance of DirectX or Vulkan depends on a per-case basis. To tell you about this in detail, we have compared the performance of DirectX vs Vulkan graphics API below.
Keep in mind that your performance numbers might vary based on the PC’s components – DirectX could be better for some cases, while Vulkan may be preferred by others. While I also wanted to test DirectX 11 vs Vulkan in Baldur’s Gate 3, I could not do it because the game kept crashing. Once that is fixed, I will be sure to update this section with those benchmarks.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, the results were a bit similar. Vulkan achievedbetter minimum FPSand overall had a better FPS range. It also felt a bit smoother with a greater average FPS depending on the scene. With DirectX 12, the game had a higher maximum FPS but a lower minimum FPS. The experience was slightly better on Vulkan in my testing. Some people report experiencing stuttering issues with Vulkan, while others say they are having inconsistent performance with DirectX.
To switch between Vulkan or DX12 in RDR2, go to your in-game graphics settings and scroll down to advanced graphics settings. Here, switch between Vulkan & DirectX 12. Then, you can run the in-game benchmark to get the FPS numbers. Whatever gives you better average FPS is probably the right choice of graphics API in the game.
Path of Exile is an older game, but it has been regularly updated and has tons of players. Here, you can select between three graphics APIs: DirectX 11, DirectX 12, and Vulkan.
Depending on the combination of your system specifications, one of these two APIs could perform better. It also depends upon the game optimization. To decide which graphics API to use between DirectX and Vulkan, you should test your in-game performance and compare the FPS.
Usually, DirectX is the one with more stability but the opposite can also be true sometimes. I feel Vulkan is better as it is said to be a balanced API that doesn’t have too much overhead either. AMD GPU owners can also benefit from using Vulkan, maybe because the backbone of Vulkan (Mantle) was essentially authored by AMD.
But in the end, for the gamers out there, whichever API runs better is the one you should use. What are your thoughts on DirectX vs Vulkan? Let us know in the comments below.
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