What is VulkanRT - Vulkan Runtime Library ?

So you recently came across this weird name Vulkanrt which you are skeptical about if it is safe or not. How did this come to your PC? What does it do? So here we will look deeply into all of these questions about Vulkanrt.

There might be chances that you found it in Program Files(x86) while some users found it in their installed applications list. So is it safe? Yes, this Hollywood movie Villian name-like Program is safe and is used to improve the graphics performance in 3D applications such as interactive media and Games. 

What is VulkanRT?

VulkanRT(Vulkan Runtime Library) is a product of Khronos Group, which focuses on building royalty-free open standard APIs for 3D Graphics, Virtual Reality(VR), Augmented Reality(AR), Parallel Computing, Machine Learning, and Vision Processing. First announced in 2015 by the Khronos group at Game Developer's Conference, VulkanRT is a Cross-Platform API that specifically targets to improve the graphic performance in 3D applications such as Games and other interactive media. 

It reduces the CPU usage through Batching(dividing the workload into Different Batches) and utilizing other low-level optimization techniques. Reducing the load on the CPU makes it do more computation or rendering than would otherwise be possible. Apart from reducing CPU usage, Vulkan offers to improve scalability on multi-core CPUs and also offers Ray Tracing through its extension VK_KHR_ray_tracing. 

Overall, it can be said that VulkanRT helps our computer to perform better in 3D graphics by reducing the load on our CPU. It also help us utilize the hardware more efficiently.

What other alternatives of VulkanRT are available?

VulkanRT is a successor to OpenGL but there are some situations where OpenGL is best suited and somewhere VulkanRT is. Direct3D12 is a major alternative to VulkanRT which also serves the same purpose but VulkanRT is available for Multiple platforms such as Windows, Android, Linux, Nintendo Switch, etc. while Direct3D12 is only for Windows devices. Apart from Direct3D12, other alternatives to Vulkan include SDL, Allegro, FMOD, etc.

Why is it Installed on my PC?

You might be wondering how did this thing appear on my PC but there's nothing to worry about. Since Vulkan is derived from the AMD's API named Mantle so it supports AMD and also supports other Vendors such as Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, ARM Mali, etc. So if you have AMD or Nvidia GPU installed on your PC so there are chances of it existing on your PC. Also, if you have recently updated your GPU drivers then there are chances that you might have installed Vulkan Runtime Library on your PC. There are a lot of games that require VulkanRT support to run so if you have recently installed a new game then there might be a chance that it got installed on your PC. 

Any change with your GPU or Drivers or new Game Installation may result in the installation of VulkanRT on your computer. 

What should you do if you find it on your computer?

If you find this Vulkan Runtime Library installed on your computer then you should not Uninstall or Delete it because it is an important Graphic rendering API that is essential for some games and GPUs to work effectively. 

Is it Safe?

Yes, the Library is safe so there is nothing to do and worry about this. Also, the Library should not be confused with a Virus or Malware if it is not causing any harm to your PC. 

We hope this article helped you understand the VulkanRT. Thanks for Reading!!