If you are a stickler for a clean system and you know your drivers are fully updated, you might consider uninstalling it. Modern graphics drivers (NVIDIA GeForce Experience or AMD Adrenalin) usually install the latest version of the Vulkan Runtime automatically upon update.
For years, graphics programming was dominated by two major APIs: Microsoft’s DirectX (specifically Direct3D) and the open-source OpenGL. However, as hardware became more complex—with multi-core CPUs and advanced GPUs—older APIs introduced significant CPU driver overhead. Game developers found that their engines were limited not by the GPU’s raw power, but by the time the CPU spent validating and translating draw calls. vulkan run time libraries 1.0.39.1
Version 1.0.39.1 commonly appears in your installed programs list after updating graphics drivers from NVIDIA , AMD , or Intel . If you are a stickler for a clean
These games check if a compatible Vulkan runtime is present. If not (or if an older version exists), the game installer drops version 1.0.39.1 or newer. These games check if a compatible Vulkan runtime is present
: It reduces driver overhead and improves multi-core CPU scaling, allowing work to be distributed more evenly across processor cores. Successor to OpenGL