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DXVK is a "mod" for games originally developed for DirectX 9, 10 and 11 that allows them to run with Vulkan instead of DirectX.

Is there a way to make sure that the game where I installed DXVK to is actually using Vulkan? For some games like GTA IV, is very easy to know due to big performance improvements when compared to DirectX, but other ones do not.

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  • DXVK translates DX API calls to vulkan, which means the game is still using DirectX, but now it's also translating those calls. This means you will likely never see a performance improvement from using it. DXVK is designed for operating systems that don't support DirectX, and you shouldn't be using it on Windows in the vast majority of cases
    – Ben
    Mar 4, 2021 at 9:29
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    @Ben "Performance improvements", in the case of Grand Theft Auto IV, is the reduction of almost all stuttering on some systems.
    – Lemon
    Mar 5, 2021 at 19:21
  • @Lemon Do you know the reason for those improvements?
    – Andreas
    Apr 4, 2022 at 13:33
  • @Andreas Nope. It feels weird because I wasn't expecting any improvements, I tried it just as an experiment but it did helped with the stuttering in GTA IV at high speeds.
    – Lemon
    Apr 5, 2022 at 0:43

4 Answers 4

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There is actually a way to see if an application is using DXVK by enabling the DXVK HUD:

The DXVK_HUD environment variable controls a HUD which can display the framerate and some stat counters. ... Additionally, DXVK_HUD=1 has the same effect as DXVK_HUD=devinfo,fps, and DXVK_HUD=full enables all available HUD elements.

You can enable the DXVK HUD on windows via the following steps:

  • Open the Windows Settings
  • Go to System > About
  • On the Right, click Advanced system settings
  • Click Environment Variables
  • On System variables, click New...
  • On Variable name write DXVK_HUD, and on Variable value write devinfo,fps
  • Click OK to add the variable, click OK again to save the environment variables and again to close the System Properties window

enter image description here

Now, when you open a game using DXVK, you will see something like the following picture. It will contain the model of your GPU, the version of the Vulkan driver, the version of the Vulkan runtime and your Frames Per Second.

enter image description here

If you see that information, then the game is using DXVK.

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For years there has been an easier way to know with which Graphics API a game is running.

Simply use MSI Afterburner/RivaTunerStatisticsServer to display the Frame-Rate of the game, and to the left of the frame-rate it shows the API.

Furthermore, using this method, it shows "VULKAN" when using DXVK, or OpenGL/DirectX8/9/10/11/12 when the default API of the game is used.

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You can also simply create dxvk.conf file with a line:

dxvk.hud = devinfo,fps

And place it near the dll file(s).

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  • I didn't knew about the dxvk.conf file, good to know that you no longer need to edit the environment variables.
    – Lemon
    Apr 5, 2022 at 0:44
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DXVK is an API designed for Linux. It actually works with WINE; as for Windows, it's more or less experimental. Not all games perform better in fact some might work the same as if you were using DirectX under Windows.

There is no way to see if you're using DXVK under Windows though, since DxDiag only reports DirectX versions. It can't detect Vulkan, you would in theory need a third party program and even then, it might not show your game's running state.

DXVK works if you see a sudden performance boost in game, you don't need an app for that the difference is clear and apparent. Some games however require the dx .dll to be (renamed) replaced completely, as they might have a file structure that is hardcoded into the exe.

There may even be a possibility the game you are running or trying to run doesn't use DirectX to begin with, in which case DXVK won't work at all.

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