Chinese company Lisuan is preparing for the commercial launch of its consumer GPU, the LX 7G100. They are releasing a limited edition, cheekily named Founders Edition, a nod to NVIDIA. The initial run will be limited to 1,000 units, each with a unique serial number and signed by Xuan Yifang, co-founder and co-CEO of Lisuan. Pre-orders began today on the well-known Chinese store JD, with purchases becoming available from May 22nd.
The use of the term “Founders Edition” is amusing, as it’s strongly associated with NVIDIA. It’s noteworthy that this ‘nomenclature’ is now being used for a GPU from Lisuan Tech, a Chinese company aiming to establish itself as a domestic alternative in the gaming graphics card market. This is not a high-end card, but rather a mid-range model with the stated ambition of approaching the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 in certain scenarios. Essentially, it could be considered China’s Intel Arc.
Appearance of the Lisuan LX 7G100 Founders Edition
Technically, the Lisuan LX 7G100 is based on the TrueGPU architecture, which Lisuan claims is its own development. As far as is known, this graphics card utilizes a GPU chip manufactured using 6nm lithography. However, the manufacturer behind it remains undisclosed, though speculation points to TSMC using DUV technology. This chip is paired with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, features a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 interface, four video outputs (DisplayPort 1.4a), and is powered by a 16-pin power connector (12v-2×6).
The official specifications also include support for display output up to 8K resolution at 60 Hz with HDR, FreeSync, and DSC. It boasts NRSS super-resolution technology, 8K HEVC decoding @ 60 FPS, 8K HEVC encoding @ 30 FPS, and compatibility with DirectX 12, Vulkan 1.3, OpenGL 4.6, and OpenCL 3.0 APIs. The card measures 294 x 120 x 49 mm and employs active cooling with axial fans. The chip is cooled by a copper base connected to an aluminum heatsink through no fewer than five copper heatpipes.
In terms of design, the Lisuan LX 7G100 Founders Edition aims to stand out. It features a silver finish, a front with three axial fans (with the outer fans being larger), a cooling system partially concealed under the shroud, and RGB accents on the top. This limited edition is clearly positioned as a collector’s item or an early adopter product rather than a mass-market retail release. A significant achievement is that Lisuan has obtained Microsoft WHQL certification for its drivers, which is crucial as the primary challenge for a new GPU often lies not just in chip manufacturing but in achieving real compatibility with Windows, modern APIs, and current games.
Expected Performance
Achieving compatibility is one thing, but driver performance is another, as evidenced by Intel’s early struggles with its Intel Arc GPUs. Lisuan states that its LX 7G100 GPU is compatible with over 100 games, mentioning titles like Black Myth: Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, Elden Ring, DOTA 2, and Genshin Impact. 100 games is a relatively small number, suggesting it follows a similar path to Intel: prioritizing support for modern titles and gradually improving support for older ones over time. However, support for DirectX 11 or DirectX 9 APIs is not mentioned.
It’s also important to note that actual performance will depend on drivers, shader compilation, API overhead, and game-specific optimization. Therefore, comparisons to the GeForce RTX 4060 would likely be in optimized titles. In synthetic benchmarks, the company has reported scores such as 26,800 points in 3DMark Fire Strike and 2,268 points in Steel Nomad. These figures are used to justify the comparison with the RTX 4060 range. However, there’s a significant caveat: local media reports suggest that initial performance is driver-limited and, in its launch state, it would likely fall behind an RTX 3050. Nevertheless, there is potential for improvement with future driver updates.
Chinese media have also cited a price for the Founders Edition: 3,299 yuan (approximately 417 euros or 485 US dollars), dropping to 374 euros or 435 US dollars with local subsidies. This makes it more expensive than a GeForce RTX 4060, which is a higher-tier card. However, for a nascent national product, this is understandable, especially considering the potential for a significant number of users interested in supporting the local ecosystem, as well as collectors or buyers who believe in driver evolution.
The article “Así luce la Lisuan LX 7G100 Founders Edition: GPU china que rinde como una GeForce RTX 4060” was first published on El Chapuzas Informático.
