# DXVK

22 Hacker News commenters recommended DXVK and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Translates DirectX calls to Vulkan so Windows games run well on Linux, sometimes with better frame rates than Windows. Critics note slowness on macOS via MoltenVK and hard debugging.

## Why people recommend it

- Better frame rates and performance (6 comments): "If using DXVK or VKD3D is any indication, I think the performance losses can be minimized." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50144930)) "dxvk can give a decent little performance boost - even if you're running on Windows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45797833)) "Sure is nice as a user. I get better frames in some games than Windows users do!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48005491))
- Lets Windows games run on Linux (4 comments): "The reason Wine/DXVK/Proton works so well is because it didn't fracture itself into a thousand downstream forks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49779924)) "And thanks to him I was able to play and finish Nier Automata on the Steam Deck" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46370680)) "Wine -> DXVK -> native graphics API works great for many people." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48679029))
- Translates DirectX calls into Vulkan (4 comments): "DXVK can translate DirectX code into batched calls with a shader cache even if the game itself doesn't support it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49729657)) "DXVK is a translation layer that translates D3D calls to Vulkan with excellent performance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46827853)) "you can use DXVK to translate DirectX calls into Vulkan" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47510582))
- Active open-source community maintaining it (3 comments): "DXVK, vkd3d on the other hand is propped up by dozens of passionate open-source contributors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46029941)) "DXVK and MoltenVK have got a lot of traction and fixes on their own" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48791756)) "mostly thanks to Valve and the Wine/DVXK community's efforts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46825717))

## What people warn about

- Slow on macOS via MoltenVK (2 comments): "Apple handle the shader lowering in many cases better then dxvk -> moltenvk -> metal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48955839)) "it's a bit slow because you also have to emulate Vulkan using Metal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47347288))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [dgVoodoo2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dgvoodoo.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "DXVK", https://hackerapproved.com/p/dxvk/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).