In both cases, the GPU executes shaders, while the CPU executes everything else. OpenGL and Vulkan are both rendering APIs. 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. 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 was first announced by the non-profit Khronos Group at GDC 2015. In addition to its lower CPU usage, Vulkan is designed to allow developers to better distribute work among multiple CPU cores. Vulkan is comparable to Apple's Metal API and Microsoft's Direct3D 12, and is harder to use than the higher-level OpenGL and Direct3D 11 APIs. It does so by providing a considerably lower-level API for the application than the older APIs that more closely resembles how modern GPUs work. Vulkan is intended to offer higher performance and more efficient CPU and GPU usage compared to the older OpenGL and Direct3D 11 APIs. Vulkan targets high-performance real-time 3D-graphics applications, such as video games and interactive media, and highly parallelized computing.

Vulkan is a low- overhead, cross-platform API, open standard for 3D graphics and computing. com /KhronosGroup /Vulkan-HeadersĪndroid, Linux, Haiku, Fuchsia, BSD Unix, QNX, Windows, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, Tizen, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, Raspberry Pi, vxWorks

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