Keep It, or Uninstall It? Everything About VulkanRT

Written by Muqadas Wattoo | Published on February 20, 2019

If you’ve ever come across the VulkanRT program while running through your PC, you’ll know it can be a scary experience. Going across the internet there’s a lot of misinformation about Vulkan Runtime Libraries, many articles and forums out there claim that the program is malware. However, this is not the case at all. VulkanRT is a graphics API. Gamers will be familiar with OpenGL and Java, VulkanRT is an application in the same vein as these two. VulkanRT is not malware in any form of the way, and there is no reason to remove it from your PC.

What is VulkanRT?

As mentioned above, VulkanRT is a graphics API. What an API does is define the interaction between your CPU and the software installed in it. The purpose of a graphical API is to control the graphical interactions between the software and the hardware. Like OpenGL and DirectX11 it allows you to play the newest games on your device with ease.

The software generally comes packaged with the drivers of several video card manufacturers. The software belongs to the Khronos group. The Khronos group is an American consortium, it consists of several major companies that are working together to standardize the performance of APIs. All these companies are working together to ensure that the software is compatible with various kinds of hardware. With the software subject to regular updates, rumors are circulating that VulkanRT is in prime position to replace OpenGL and DirectX11 as the graphical API for newer games.

One of VulkanRT’s most essential functions is the fact that it allows video game developers to not worry as much about maximizing the performance of their games. VulkanRT radically decreases the amount of GPU a game requires, several favorite new games support VulkanRT.

What does VulkanRT do?

VulkanRT is primarily responsible for maximizing 3d performances on your PC. It comes bundled with graphics card drivers, and you’ll notice it in your program files if you regularly update your graphics card drivers. VulkanRT’s primary function is to render graphics, and it does this very simply by decreasing the amount of GPU a game will use. What this function does is it gives your CPU more processing power to run smoothly and minimizes the risk of cores maxing out.

VulkanRT has a whole host of features that make it better than other Graphical API programs. It’s optimized to function in a top-level graphics card and all kinds of mobile devices. The program effectively increases the performance of all graphical applications. Unlike other graphical API, VulkanRT functions on multiple OS, so you don’t need to worry about installing a specific OS anymore. Furthermore, the VulkanRT uses batching, batching is a process by which a CPU computes several different functions at once. Batching also spreads functions among different cores, effectively reducing the overall load on the CPU allowing it to do more tasks. Another feature that sets VulkanRT apart from regular graphical API is the ability to scale in multi-core processors. Graphical APIs before the VulkanRT could only achieve scaling in a single core and hence operated at a significant disadvantage. Perhaps the feature that will please gamers the most is the significantly improved performance. This improvement in performance is achieved solely through better GPU optimization. VulkanRT is also more compact when compared to Graphical API that came before it, meaning that it uses much less memory on your CPU.

All in all the VulkanRT is an upgrade on the previous generation of Graphical API, it is typically used alongside AMD drivers as they provide the most optimum performance. Combined with better performance, VulkanRT seems to be the Graphical API of the future.

Should you remove it?

This brings us back to the first questions as there are numerous articles out there that claim VulkanRT is malware and you should remove it. However, there is no chance of the official program to be any sort of virus. There is no need for you to ever remove VulkanRT. The software comes bundled with several video graphic card drivers and certain games as well that require it to function. If you have removed the software you may start experiencing a multitude of issues. One of the most common issues that you’ll face is the inability to play the newest titles as most of them require it to function. Additionally, it may also mess up your CPU’s ability to render videos in HD and you won’t be able to set the screen resolution to what you want. Furthermore, several incredibly popular games such as DOTA 2 and the Tomb Raider series require you to have the software. Deleting it may cause issues while playing these games. If you’ve already removed the software, reinstalling the software isn’t impossible but it’s not a straight forward task either.

How to Reinstall VulkanRT?

Due to the overwhelming amount of information online claiming that VulkanRT is a virus many users will have deleted the software. If you are one of those users, it’s unfortunate but we have to tell you that re-installing the software is not a simple task. There’s no way to independently download the software unfortunately as it isn’t available anywhere online. If that’s left you wondering what you can do to install it again don’t worry. As the article has mentioned above VulkanRT comes bundled with graphics card drivers.

Re-installing the graphics card drivers or updating them again can lead to VulkanRT being re-installed. Similarly to this method, several new games also come with VulkanRT bundled with them. Uninstalling and then Re-installing one of these games can also lead to getting VulkanRT back. These trial and error methods are the only ones currently available if you’ve removed the software. We can only stress that the software is not malware and there is no reason to delete it.

These issues with re-installing arise because VulkanRT, unlike DirectX and OpenGL, isn’t available for download independently up till now.  Khronos group may decide to change this eventually and make it possible for download directly, but there are no updates on the matter as of now.

Advantages of VulkanRT

The software has several advantages over the traditional Graphical API software. Amongst the most significant strengths of the software is the compatibility with multiple different operating systems. VulkanRT supports Windows, Linux, Android, and Tizen among others. The compatibility makes it much easier for developers to maximize the performance of their games on several different OS.

Additionally, VulkanRT gives your CPU better performance as well. All new games will run better as it is optimized to perform with them. Furthermore, it makes the most of existing GPU allowing games to run better on inferior graphics cards as well. It doesn’t end here either, VulkanRT helps reduce the amount of Power consumed by the CPU. Reducing the overall power consumed helps the PC multitask more efficiently. In the case of a laptop, VulkanRT can also help improve battery life.

If you want to get a bit more technical about the advantages VulkanRT offers, the software manages both kernels and shaders which completely removes the need to have different API to handle both. The drivers on the software are also smaller in size meaning it takes up lesser space on your CPU. The software has massive potential and seems like the future of Graphical API.

Disadvantages of VulkanRT

The program VulkanRT is relatively complex and is hard to understand, with the Khronos group also releasing very little information on it. There’s no real way to play around with the settings and adjust anything to your choice as well. OpenGL in comparison is a software that is much more user-friendly both for the player and developers. Furthermore, the software is relatively new and does not offer optimal functionality for all applications and games. There are several programs and games out there that don’t even support the software in any capacity. When the game or software doesn’t support VulkanRT this can cause several issues with the graphical performance. The games may work, but graphical performance will be severely limited, this can cause problems because there’s no way to disable the software without deleting it.

Conclusion

The article has pretty much covered all there is to know about VulkanRT. However, as the software gets continually updated and improved there are going to be more articles regarding VulkanRT. When more information is available, it’ll be easier to dive in and learn everything about the software.

For now, just be reassured that the software isn’t any malware and it is entirely safe to have it on your computer. It works towards improving the graphical performance of your PC. It’s also imperative to keep in mind that you shouldn’t remove this software. VulkanRT is not a virus in any form and removing it can lead to several issues. These issues can seriously hinder the graphical performance of your games and can lead to a lot of frustrations. Installing the software again is another annoying task so trust us, you’re better off not removing the software.