Microsoft's DirectX and Khronos Group's Vulkan are two popular graphics 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 as they do, with high frame rates and fast rendering times. But how do these two graphics APIs, Vulkan and DirectX, stack up against each other? Which one is best for playing games? Let's find out.
Graphics API Comparison – DirectX 11 vs DirectX 12 vs VULKAN
First, let's discuss the evolution and history to show you the importance of a graphics API like DirectX and Vulkan.
In the beginning, DirectX was developed by a team at Microsoft that mainly worked for increased use by game developers, so that the Windows-based computers would have games for their users. Before DirectX came along, developers preferred to make games for DOS and had no intention of releasing new titles for Windows.
This was back when Windows 95 was coming out. Aside from DOS games, console gaming also grew steadily. DirectX 1.0 was released in September 1995 and was called the Windows Game SDK.
