Intel has announced support for the Vulkan graphics API in the company’s most recent ‘Core’ chips on Windows 10.
Vulkan, a graphics API similar to DirectX 12, is already supported on graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD. Khronos released v1.0 of the Vulkan specification almost one year ago on February 16th.
Beyond the desktop, Vulkan supports Qualcomm-based mobile devices and the PS4 console. A natural successor to OpenGL, the API is designed to make it easier to port games from DirectX than its notoriously difficult predecessor.
Most games today continue to use DirectX 12 despite being closed-source and restricted to Microsoft platforms such as Windows and Xbox. While the familiarity of DirectX may keep some developers preferring it over Vulkan, the long-awaited final support from Intel could persuade more to make the jump.
While integrated graphics from Intel on their Core chips will be no match for dedicated GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD, there should be some modest performance gains. It will be interesting to see how Vulkan improves the performance of apps running on Windows Holographic VR headsets when they’re released by Microsoft’s hardware partners later this year.
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