Vulkan is a low-overhead, cross-platform API for 3D graphics and computing. Vulkan targets high-performance real-time 3D graphics applications, such as video games and interactive media. Compared to OpenGL, Direct3D 11 and Metal, Vulkan is intended to offer higher performance and more balanced CPU and GPU usage. Other major differences from Direct3D 11 and OpenGL is Vulkan being a considerably lower-level API and offering parallel tasking. In addition to its lower CPU usage, Vulkan is designed to allow developers to better distribute work among multiple CPU cores.
Vulkan is a low-overhead, cross-platform API for 3D graphics and computing. Vulkan targets high-performance real-time 3D graphics applications, such as video games and interactive media. Compared to OpenGL, Direct3D 11 and Metal, Vulkan is intended to offer higher performance and more balanced CPU and GPU usage. Other major differences from Direct3D 11 and OpenGL is Vulkan being a considerably lower-level API and offering parallel tasking. In addition to its lower CPU usage, Vulkan is designed to allow developers to better distribute work among multiple CPU cores. Vulkan was first announced by the non-profit Khronos Group at GDC 2015. The Vulkan API was initially referred to as the "next generation OpenGL initiative", or "OpenGL next" by Khronos, but use of those names was discontinued when Vulkan 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.