Vulkan Multi-GPU Support to be Available in Windows 10, 8.x, 7, and Linux

[Raevenlord]

Vulkan is arguably the API which has garnered the most positive reactions from enthusiasts. Its implementation in Doom, for example, brought about incredible performance improvements in a game that not only looked and played great, but also performed amazingly well. Vulkan's support for other operating systems other than Windows 10 (where Microsoft still has a lot of ground to cover in acquiring enthusiast trust and interest) is one of its greatest selling points, and the API has been gaining ever more traction in the market, with some developers even going so far as to axe DX12 support in favor of Vulkan.

Now, Khronos Group has come ahead and clarified that "(...) the Vulkan multi-GPU specification is very definitely NOT tied to Windows 10. It is possible to implement the Vulkan multi-GPU extension on any desktop OS including Windows 7, 8.X and 10 and Linux." Khronos also goes on to say that they are aware that some developers are already baking Multi-GPU support into their games in various platforms other than Windows 10. These are sure to come as good news - the fact that Vulkan is platform agnostic is great for consumers and developers alike. And maybe this support - which still depends on developers to implement it - will bring about the shot in the arm that multi-GPU implementations sorely need.





Khronos let out some official remarks clarifying the situation, which may be worth a read:

"Some of the Khronos GDC presentations mentioned that for Vulkan multi-GPU functionality, Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) must be in Linked Display Adapter (LDA) mode. That was not a very clear statement that has caused some confusion. And so it is worth clarifying that:

• The use of WDDM is referring to the use of Vulkan multi-GPU functionality on Windows. On other OS, WDDM is not necessary to implement the Vulkan multi-GPU extension.
• On Windows, the use of LDA mode can make implementing Vulkan multi-GPU functionality easier, and will probably be used by most implementations, but it is not strictly necessary.
• If an implementation on Windows does decide to use LDA mode, it is NOT tied to Windows 10. LDA mode has been available on many versions of Windows, including Windows 7 and 8.X."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[dorsetknob]

This is indeed good news
Especially for those people that upgraded from (no preference here as to order) AMD to Nvidia or Nvidia to AMD and kept their old card

 

[TheGuruStud]

If this were done correctly across many games, we would be going back to windows 7 for gaming lol

 

[cdawall]

If this were done correctly across many games, we would be going back to windows 7 for gaming lol

Why? 10 works better

 

[deu]

CIG (Star Citizen) have also confirmed that they are optimizing they game 'for'/using vulkan instead of dx12 due to better performance overall so it seems to be going the vulkan way :0

 

[Fx]

If this were done correctly across many games, we would be going back to windows 7 for gaming lol

Yeah, or we can just continue to stay on Win7 Pro x64 =]

 

[Jism]

Why? 10 works better

If that is the only thing you can think of, think again.

- Windows 10 collects data, even when you disable it's re-enabled upon installation of a new update.
- Windows 10 updates sometimes fails, leaving a system unusable or even with data-loss
- Windows 10 gamers mode is useless if you ask me.

- There's no need to have W10 to support the latest CPU' such as Intel or Ryzen, it's just that Microsoft does'nt care about it's 45% userbase on W7 no-more and is pushing that tile bullshit to alot of people, even unwanted in the very beginning.

But, this is good news, Vulkan is able to run the latest features on the GPU (simular to DX12) even if on Windows XP for example.

 

[TheGuruStud]

Why? 10 works better

Multiple driver leaks is not better.
And I have a new problem with it. At 62% ram utilization, I get the "out of memory" warning.

At least they fixed system image backup FINALLY (after the anniversary update).

 

[RejZoR]

This will be a big pro for Vulkan. Reason why DX12 just doesn't take off is limitation to Windows 10. Vulkan will just work across pretty much all platforms and devices. Some of us still remember the days when you had D3D, 3dfx Glide, OpenGL and S3 Metal. Then it all died in favor of D3D. Might be the time when things change again...

 

[cdawall]

If that is the only thing you can think of, think again.

- Windows 10 collects data, even when you disable it's re-enabled upon installation of a new update.
- Windows 10 updates sometimes fails, leaving a system unusable or even with data-loss
- Windows 10 gamers mode is useless if you ask me.

- There's no need to have W10 to support the latest CPU' such as Intel or Ryzen, it's just that Microsoft does'nt care about it's 45% userbase on W7 no-more and is pushing that tile bullshit to alot of people, even unwanted in the very beginning.

But, this is good news, Vulkan is able to run the latest features on the GPU (simular to DX12) even if on Windows XP for example.

Everything collects data.

W10 update after failure repairs itself if you reboot in the middle of the installer.

Who uses gamer mode and why was it brought up?

There is no need to use windows 7, windows 10 works better with most modern CPU's

Multiple driver leaks is not better.
And I have a new problem with it. At 62% ram utilization, I get the "out of memory" warning.

At least they fixed system image backup FINALLY (after the anniversary update).

I have yet to see an error for that. I tested it with my laptop running multiple VM's and was unable to duplicate the issue. There are plenty of memory and driver leaks in 7 you are kidding yourself if you think differently. 7 is far from perfect, as is 10, but man does this sound like the Windows XP is dead days.

 

[Dimi]

Multiple driver leaks is not better.
And I have a new problem with it. At 62% ram utilization, I get the "out of memory" warning.

At least they fixed system image backup FINALLY (after the anniversary update).

Something must be wrong with your memory because i can run about 10 vm's with 95% of my ram used perfectly fine.

 

[R-T-B]

If that is the only thing you can think of, think again.

- Windows 10 collects data, even when you disable it's re-enabled upon installation of a new update.
- Windows 10 updates sometimes fails, leaving a system unusable or even with data-loss
- Windows 10 gamers mode is useless if you ask me.

- There's no need to have W10 to support the latest CPU' such as Intel or Ryzen, it's just that Microsoft does'nt care about it's 45% userbase on W7 no-more and is pushing that tile bullshit to alot of people, even unwanted in the very beginning.

But, this is good news, Vulkan is able to run the latest features on the GPU (simular to DX12) even if on Windows XP for example.

None of which relates to it's actually performance vs 7.

 

[alucasa]

None of which relates to it's actually performance vs 7.

Don't think that matters to the poster. He just want to bring it up.

 

[nem..]

It could be the year of Linux.

- Star Citizen going to vulkan.

- Vulkan supporting multi gpu Arrangements.

- Directx12 floping

- Win 10 scaring people by spyware core.

-etc etc

 

[geon2k2]

I think API such as DX provided by the OS vendor should be banned altogether.
Its a monopolistic behavior, which severely impairs the competition and which forces us all to but their OS, although clearly there are many very good OS-es out there, and probably there would be even more if people and companies knew that they have a chance.

Its good that APIs such as Vulkan are cathing up and are being more and more utilized, as they are cross OS and with little extra effort companies can make games which run well on everything.

 

[theGryphon]

... but man does this sound like the Windows XP is dead days.

Tell me about it... I sigh every time I read on how glorious Win 7 is and how shitty Win 10 is... the same type of people who resisted moving away from XP to 7.

I would somewhat understand these people if MS did not offer Win 10 FREE for more than a year. I mean, come on, what else should they have done? Throw in a free daily Starbucks coffee?

Collecting information... if one company is to be blamed on that front it's Google, not MS. MS would rank behind Facebook and Apple as well in terms of info-aggressiveness. Wake up people, it's the information age, all companies are collecting it, let alone software/it companies whose core business is based on information.

Anyway, back to topic, Vulkan seems to be coming strong, and I welcome it wholeheartedly. If any infrastructure is to be a "standard" it should be platform agnostic. Competition is good in one sense, but it also leads to fragmentation. Let's see how things will play out between Vulkan and DX12...

 

[efikkan]

Who gave people the impression that it would be Windows 10 exclusive? Some random incompetent people on the Internet?

Unfortunately many people talk a lot about Vulkan but are really clueless. Any competent developer knew Vulkan was not tied to Windows 10.

 

[HisDivineOrder]

It could be the year of Linux.

- Star Citizen going to vulkan.

- Vulkan supporting multi gpu Arrangements.

- Directx12 floping

- Win 10 scaring people for spyware core.

-etc etc

Every year is the Year of Linux.

Just not for PC gaming.

 

[theGryphon]

Who gave people the impression that it would be Windows 10 exclusive? Some random incompetent people on the Internet?

Unfortunately many people talk a lot about Vulkan but are really clueless. Any competent developer knew Vulkan was not tied to Windows 10.

Who says Vulkan is exclusive to Win10?? I think you maybe misread something...

 

[Ja.KooLit]

One word. G-R-E-A-T

 

[owen10578]

Who says Vulkan is exclusive to Win10?? I think you maybe misread something...

And I think you misunderstood something

 

[etayorius]

Great news honestly, i see no reason to upgrade to 10. I mean i'm not saying it's horrible, and spyware is everywhere even on any Hardware labeled as "Smart". But why upgrade when Win7 is fully functional?

 

[theGryphon]

And I think you misunderstood something

Oh, I believe it is you who misunderstood something here

I didn't blame him for thinking that Vulkan is Win 10 exclusive, but apparently he thought someone thought Vulkan is Win 10 exclusive. Since I didn't see anyone displaying such thought (that Vulkan is Win 10 exclusive), I was genuinely asking him who he thought was thinking that Vulkan is Win 10 exclusive.

I hope this does it

 

[ratirt]

Oh, I believe it is you who misunderstood something here

I didn't blame him for thinking that Vulkan is Win 10 exclusive, but apparently he thought someone thought Vulkan is Win 10 exclusive. Since I didn't see anyone displaying such thought (that Vulkan is Win 10 exclusive), I was genuinely asking him who he thought was thinking that Vulkan is Win 10 exclusive.

I hope this does it

That's the point bro. You misunderstood he didn't say that Vulcan is Win 10 Exclusive. Or you simply didn't read his entire post correctly. Too rush bro with understanding. He just asked the rhetorical question which already everybody knows the answer to. He stated the fact that it is not exclusive which means you can use it on mostly any OS. In this case win 10, 8.x, 7 and Linux. Not sure about Mac but who knows. Probably that one can use Vulcan as well.

BTW
From the other perspective. Win 10 is not that great. I got some older stuff in my PC and I can still see the crappy HDD behaviors when it shuts down randomly and you can hear the clicks. This hasn't been fixed yet I suppose. I rolled back to win 7 and I don't really mind. Everything is tip top and clicking as it should. Not saying it is a bad system but I can't say it's so great since it's not. Besides I don't like to rush things and since I have an option win 10 or 7 I stay with 7 for now.

 

[Jism]

None of which relates to it's actually performance vs 7.

What? So your saying W10 gets in favor of W7, like 3 more FPS? 0.3 seconds faster in adobe? 0.1 second faster in booting?

Geezus. It's not about speed, it's about stability and coming back one day knowing your computer is fine. I can see more and more threads spawning at this very moment W10 being unusable for a pushed update. Imagine if you where a small company, and all your work depends on your computer. Some update ruined with worst case scenario of Data loss. no joke.

Great news honestly, i see no reason to upgrade to 10. I mean i'm not saying it's horrible, and spyware is everywhere even on any Hardware labeled as "Smart". But why upgrade when Win7 is fully functional?

Exactly my point. This big data thing all companies are doing these days is a trend i dont like. Yes i use google, yes i use facebook, but i simply limit the amount of information i'm supplying them. With W10, it's not really a choice, since upon new installation of a new update, your settings can/will be reset. Simular as to W7 now, you completely disable updates, in register AND os-level, and like 2 months later, a forced update coming into your computer, resetting things such as system restore, UAC and opening the doors for 'updates' to be installed.

Personally, a OS should do what you give it, not by a company who can change certain things or install 'new features' which dont do any good towards productivity. But i guess it's just the difference in generations. I came from MS-dos 4.0, and noted the whole movement all my life. Win10 is not what you call an OS being in the right direction as when it comes to privacy. I think more people should become aware of that.

You dont need DX12 (or Win10) to play games. Vulkan proves this by making it possible to use ALL gpu features without being OS dependend. Dont believe the hype MS is trying to pull you over to W10. That's all.