Vulkan or DX12 in EU5? Let's make the choice easier

After long 12 years, Europa Universalis series can now welcome a brand new entry, and not only another Expansion Pack for EU4. The developers claim that Europa Universalis 5 is not a simple sequel, as it draws a bit from all the grand strategy games in Paradox’s portfolio. This added complexity might have been reflected by the technical state of the production, as there are some bugs lingering in the title, like in the events relying on Claim Throne Casus Belli. Sadly, EU5 suffers also due to crashes that some less fortunate players experience. The solution to those might be changing the graphics API that the game uses. Which one to choose, then? DX12 or Vulkan? Let’s try to analyze what works best.

DirectX 12 vs Vulkan in Europa Universalis 5

Europa Universalis 5 doesn’t strike us as a graphically demanding production, yet it relies on visuals regardless. In fact, the developers recommend that the game should run on quite a formidable GPU like RTX 3060 Ti or RX 6700 XT. However, even if you meet the title’s requirements you might wonder what graphics API to choose from – DX12 or Vulkan? That is a great question that many fans ask themselves.

In general, we can see that on Europa Universalis’ official Discord server, the community recommends the use of Vulkan first. Although should there be any issues with EU5 like crashes or other inconsistencies, it is worth switching to DX12.

Despite the fact that EU5 does not utilize Unreal Engine 5 and relies on its in-house developed Clausewitz Engine with Jomini Toolset, it also shows its cracks. It is understandable that Paradox would rather use their own engine to run their products, as they are familiar with it, it’s tailored well for grand strategy games, and they don’t have to pay extra for its use. However, they are put in charge of making Clausewitz work on a number of hardware configurations. To do that, API like Vulkan or DX12 is used. It acts as a middleman between the title’s engine and your machine. It can communicate some instructions differently or use different ways of executing them, hence the difference in their reliability.

Summing up, in case everything goes smoothly, you should use Vulkan regardless of your GPU manufacturer, whether that is AMD or Nvidia. However, in case you experience any difficulties with running the game, try switching to DX12 by adding “-dx12” string in its Launch Options or simply pick this option from the menu while starting the game. Good luck!

Europa Universalis V

November 4, 2025

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• Overview

• 4X games
• Paradox Interactive
• economy
• alternative history
• Historical simulations
• grand strategy games
• simulator games