China’s Lisuan LX 7G100 Benchmark Results Reveal Limited Performance

China has released its second domestically designed graphics processing unit, the Lisuan LX 7G100, marking another attempt by the country to compete in the GPU market. Created by Lisuan Tech, a Shanghai-based startup founded in 2021 by former S3 Graphics employees, this new card launched in June and has now undergone thorough performance testing. The results tell a sobering story for anyone hoping China’s GPU ambitions would challenge Nvidia and AMD’s dominance.

According to independent benchmarking data, the LX 7G100 manages only a marginal 5 percent performance advantage over AMD’s Radeon RX 580, a graphics card released in 2016. Despite featuring modern specifications like a 6nm manufacturing process, 12GB of memory, and a 2GHz boost clock, the new Lisuan card delivers gaming performance that feels a full decade behind current technology. In a 14-game test suite, it trails Nvidia’s mid-range GeForce RTX 2060 by 65 percent and falls dramatically short against even Nvidia’s budget-focused RTX 5050, which delivers more than double the frame rate in many titles.

Compatibility Issues and Missing Features Create Real-World Obstacles

computer hardware compatibility issues
Photo by Nathan Anderson

Beyond raw performance numbers, the LX 7G100 faces significant practical limitations for gaming workloads. The GPU lacks ray tracing acceleration and matrix processing units entirely, meaning games that rely exclusively on ray tracing technology simply will not run. This omission eliminates access to modern titles like Doom: The Dark Ages and forces gamers into older, less visually demanding software. The situation worsens when considering driver stability, where testing revealed that only 14 of 20 games functioned at all, and two of those working titles suffered from graphical glitches and stability problems during gameplay.

The card does support both DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs, which provides some flexibility for developers and users. However, these technical achievements cannot overcome the fundamental performance and compatibility deficits. For shoppers in Western markets, as GPU memory technologies continue evolving, this card’s lack of modern features becomes even more problematic.

Power Consumption Demands Exceed Competing Cards

power consumption efficiency measurement
Photo by Thomas Kelley

Efficiency represents another area where the LX 7G100 disappoints potential buyers. At idle, the card consumes approximately 59 watts of power despite performing no computation. This contrasts sharply with Nvidia’s RTX 2060, which draws just 10 watts at idle, or AMD’s RX 6600, which sips a mere 6 watts. For users concerned about electricity bills and environmental impact, this inefficiency adds a measurable ongoing cost to system ownership beyond the initial purchase price.

Pricing compounds the value problem significantly. In Western European markets, the Founders Edition carries a price tag around 500 euros including import duties, while standard variants cost approximately 350 euros. This positions the LX 7G100 as an expensive alternative to both AMD and Nvidia options that offer substantially better performance, stability, and efficiency. For North American shoppers, these pricing dynamics matter because they establish a market precedent for how international GPU offerings will be evaluated.

A First Step Forward Despite Serious Limitations

While the LX 7G100 fails to compete with established GPU manufacturers, dismissing it entirely overlooks its significance. The card proves that organizations outside the traditional GPU industry can manufacture functional graphics processors, and it demonstrates competent engineering at a basic level. When compared directly to China’s previous GPU attempt, the Moore Threads MTT S80, the Lisuan card shows measurable improvement, posting 20 percent faster performance in Dota 2, 37 percent better results in Baldur’s Gate 3, and 122 percent higher frame rates in Counter-Strike 2.

The GPU gaming market genuinely needs more competition, as new GPU technologies and form factors continue emerging. However, the LX 7G100 does not represent a viable choice for most buyers seeking a gaming or workstation graphics card today. It plays some games at acceptable frame rates, proving basic functionality, but cannot compete with products from Nvidia, AMD, or even Intel. For consumers shopping today, established brands remain the reliable choice, and Chinese GPU manufacturers must accomplish substantially more to shift that calculus.