DXVK
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 graphics translation layers
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.
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.
25 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 7.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Better frame rates and performance
“If using DXVK or VKD3D is any indication, I think the performance losses can be minimized.”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “macOS 15.8.2 Breaks OpenGL” “dxvk can give a decent little performance boost - even if you're running on Windows”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark” “Sure is nice as a user. I get better frames in some games than Windows users do!”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March” - Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “RTX 5090 and Raspberry Pi: Can It Game?”
- Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Minecraft Java is switching from OpenGL to Vulkan”
- Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Minecraft Java is switching from OpenGL to Vulkan”
Lets Windows games run on Linux
“The reason Wine/DXVK/Proton works so well is because it didn't fracture itself into a thousand downstream forks”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Resident Evil 4 (GameCube) – complete byte-identical decompilation to C/C++” “And thanks to him I was able to play and finish Nier Automata on the Steam Deck”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers” “Wine -> DXVK -> native graphics API works great for many people.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Half-Life 2 in a Browser” - Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste”
Translates DirectX calls into Vulkan
“DXVK can translate DirectX code into batched calls with a shader cache even if the game itself doesn't support it.”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27” “DXVK is a translation layer that translates D3D calls to Vulkan with excellent performance”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client” “you can use DXVK to translate DirectX calls into Vulkan”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Wine 11 rewrites how Linux runs Windows games at kernel with massive speed gains” - Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “30 Years of ReactOS”
Active open-source community maintaining it
“DXVK, vkd3d on the other hand is propped up by dozens of passionate open-source contributors”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Shaders: How to draw high fidelity graphics with just x and y coordinates” “DXVK and MoltenVK have got a lot of traction and fixes on their own”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Command and Conquer Generals natively ported to macOS, iPhone, iPad using Fable” “mostly thanks to Valve and the Wine/DVXK community's efforts”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow on macOS via MoltenVK
“Apple handle the shader lowering in many cases better then dxvk -> moltenvk -> metal”
Comment from 18 Jul 2026 in “Mac gaming is finally getting the overpowered upgrade it deserves” “it's a bit slow because you also have to emulate Vulkan using Metal”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “MacBook Neo”
Other graphics translation layers people recommend
The two most recommended other graphics translation layers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 graphics translation layers, rankedWhat people said
28 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“d3d11vk is just often a wash or even a regression”
“If using DXVK or VKD3D is any indication, I think the performance losses can be minimized.”
“The reason Wine/DXVK/Proton works so well is because it didn't fracture itself into a thousand downstream forks”
“DXVK can translate DirectX code into batched calls with a shader cache even if the game itself doesn't support it.”
“proton and DXVK really are amazing”
“as long as you port the DXVK/Wine backend to the latest APIs”
“contributing to Proton, Wine, DXVK and officially supporting Vulkan”
“Apple handle the shader lowering in many cases better then dxvk -> moltenvk -> metal”
“I'm more surprised by DXVK working cleanly”
“DXVK and MoltenVK have got a lot of traction and fixes on their own”
“Wine -> DXVK -> native graphics API works great for many people.”
“Sure is nice as a user. I get better frames in some games than Windows users do!”
“it's rather annoying to debug through this intermediate layer”
“you can use DXVK to translate DirectX calls into Vulkan”
“it's a bit slow because you also have to emulate Vulkan using Metal”
“you can put DXVK DLLs in its folder and get better performance”
“I suspect that a lot of that is due to the dxvk library”
“DXVK is a translation layer that translates D3D calls to Vulkan with excellent performance”
“mostly thanks to Valve and the Wine/DVXK community's efforts”
“excellent D3D support through DXVK”
“DXVK was a revolution for gaming”
“horrible c++ diarrhea dxvk code”
“it fixes a lot of the native stutter present on the PC version of GTA IV”
“DXVK Native could speed up the porting effort.”
“And thanks to him I was able to play and finish Nier Automata on the Steam Deck”
“DXVK, vkd3d on the other hand is propped up by dozens of passionate open-source contributors”
“if you can get to DirectX 8 or 9, now you've got DXVK”
“dxvk can give a decent little performance boost - even if you're running on Windows”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.