Check out footage of DOOM running on the new Vulkan graphics API

Doom
Doom

NVIDIA and id Software have posted a direct feed video of the PC version of DOOM running on the Vulkan graphics API renderer. The Vulkan version of DOOM will be released soon after the regular PC version of the first person shooter.

This demo was run a few days ago at an NVIDIA event in Austin, Texas on their newly announced GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, running at 200 FPS. The footage leaked onto the Internet, so id Software decided to recreate the Vulkan DOOM demo for a direct feed video, but using the older GeForce GTX TITAN X card at 60 FPS and 1920x1080 resolution with a 120 degree field of view.

Normally, DOOM uses the OpenGL API but the upcoming Vulkan version should offer PC gamers a performance boost. NVIDIA says:

If you're unfamiliar with Vulkan, it's a new graphics API renderer with a simpler, thinner driver, and efficient CPU multi-threading capabilities. Compared to DirectX or OpenGL, Vulkan has less latency and overhead, and can help your system reach new levels of performance. In simpler terms, Vulkan can help developers avoid CPU bottlenecks that limit performance, and can improve performance elsewhere, too.

You can download the full and uncompressed 2.1 GB video of the Vulkan DOOM demo from the GeForce website. DOOM will be released on Friday, May 13 for the PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Check out our best graphics card picks if you need some beefier performance.

Related: Our full DOOM Eternal Xbox One review

John Callaham