Khronos Clarifies That Vulkan Multi-GPU Isn't Limited To Windows 10

With the big Vulkan 1.0.42 update came a number of new extensions, including for Vulkan multi-GPU/device support. There was some confusion by some that Vulkan's multi-GPU support was limited to Windows 10, but that is not at all the case.

It appears some confusion came up about Vulkan's multi-GPU support when some Game Developers Conference (GDC17) slides had referenced the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM). Thus some thought the Vulkan multi-device capabilities were somehow tied to using Windows' WDDM.

The Khronos Group has now issued a state that WDDM is only needed for Vulkan multi-GPU on Windows 10 while WDDM isn't otherwise necessary. Even on Windows, if Vulkan drivers choose not to use WDDM's Linked Display Adapter (LDA) mode, the Vulkan multi-GPU support can run on Windows 10 and older versions of Windows. There's nothing stopping Linux drivers -- or Vulkan drivers from other operating systems -- from implementing Vulkan multi-GPU either.

The official clarification on the matter can be found at Khronos.org.