China’s domestically developed gaming GPU debuts with benchmark results

The Dragon Awakens: A New Challenger Emerges in the GPU Arena

Will NVIDIA soon share its gaming throne? For decades, the GPU market resembled a closed-circuit race between NVIDIA and AMD, briefly disrupted by Intel’s recent entry. This controlled landscape faces a new variable: China’s Lisuan and its G100 GPU. As consumers voice frustrations over prices and availability, competition in the GPU market sparks undeniable interest. But does Lisuan pose a genuine threat, or is this merely symbolic? The answer lies in China’s tumultuous journey toward chip independence.

Roots of Revolution: The Rocky Path to Chinese Graphics Processing

China’s GPU legacy began steeped in technological dependency. For years, military and industrial needs relied entirely on Western imports. Early domestic efforts gained traction in 2006 when Jingjia Micro launched its JM series GPUs. These chips, designed for aerospace and defense systems, lacked features critical for gaming—robust DirectX compatibility and mature drivers remained distant goals.

The urgency for self-sufficiency surged around 2018. Intensifying U.S.-China trade tensions and the AI computing boom fueled government initiatives and private investment. This era witnessed four key startups emerge, nicknamed the “Four Little Dragons.” Among them were Biren Technology and Moore Threads, founded by engineers repatriated from NVIDIA and AMD. Moore Threads delivered China’s inaugural gaming-focused GPU—the MTT S80—in 2022. Despite groundbreaking specs like PCIe 5.0 support, weak drivers hampered gaming performance, cementing disappointment among early adopters.

Lisuan G100: Ambition Versus Bleak Reality

Enter Lisuan, a 2021 startup founded by ex-Silicon Valley engineers. They explicitly prioritized software optimization alongside their “TrueGPU” architecture—targeting predecessors’ driver vulnerabilities. The outcome? The Lisuan G100. Officially shipping now, this card boasts competitive specs:

• 6nm fabrication process (using China’s domestic SMIC technology)
• 24 TFLOPS FP32 compute (nabbed NVIDIA RTX 4060-equivalent claims)
• Pioneering Windows on ARM GPU support

Initial leaks, however, expose staggering performance gaps. A leaked Geekbench OpenCL result showed a score of 15,524—tying NVIDIA’s entry-level GeForce GTX 660 Ti released in 2012. Combined with bewildering specs like 32 Compute Units, a 300 MHz clock speed, and 256MB VRAM (vs. 8-12GB in modern rivals), the disconnect is undeniable. Analysts propose two interpretations:

1. Driver Immaturity: Geekbench tested on Windows 10/Ryzen 7 8700G—an unstable configuration causing misreported specs. Patches could unlock potential.
2. Silicon Limitations: The GPU’s architecture might be fundamentally incapable of nearing RTX 4060 performance.

Beyond Benchmarks: The Underrated Engineering Feat

Despite underwhelming gaming output, the G100 represents monumental progress. Architects designed it from scratch without licensing Western IP—a herculean task paralleling Intel’s years-long Arc GPU journey. Crucially, Lisuan leverages Chinese domestic manufacturing via SMIC’s 6nm node, circumventing TSMC reliance amidst U.S. export restrictions. This “zero to one” breakthrough enables functionalities absent in China’s past attempts:

• Boots standard Windows OS environments
• Executes DirectX 12 commands
• Leverages optimized kernel scheduling drivers

Moore Threads’ improved driver updates showcase China’s capacity for iterative improvement—just like Intel overcame its Arc GPU woes over multiple driver versions. Future Lisuan revisions could dramatically enhance G100 performance. Software leverages include AI-driven texture upscaling tools like MitchellNet—China’s nascent answer to DLSS.

Lisuan avoids the market-share battle haunting Western startups like defunct 3dfx. Under China’s Xinchuang initiative, governments and state-backed enterprises must replace foreign PCs with domestic equivalents, guaranteeing massive captive deployments regardless