Unheard-of Chinese GPU manufacturer aims to rival Nvidia and AMD in the professional sector, boasting 24GB VRAM. But can this underdog company truly prevail?
A new player has emerged in the competitive high-end GPU market: Lisuan Tech, a little-known Chinese company. Their first-generation graphics cards are based on the in-house TrueGPU architecture, manufactured using TSMC's 6nm process.
Lisuan Tech's focus with the 7G105 GPU is on mainstream compute and virtualization workloads, positioning it beyond the gaming market. The GPU boasts 24 GB of VRAM with ECC (Error-Correcting Code), a high-end specification for stability and reliability in professional use.
In terms of performance, the 7G105 GPU achieves a pixel fill rate up to 192 GB/s and a texture fill rate of 384 GB/s, indicating solid performance in rendering tasks typical of workstation usage. It also supports 8K decoding, four DisplayPort outputs, and both 8K and 4K encoding for AV1 and HEVC codecs, making it suitable for enterprise and hyperscaler environments that demand flexibility and parallel workloads.
However, Lisuan Tech faces significant hurdles in competing against the deeply entrenched Nvidia and AMD GPUs. The 7G105 GPU does not support ray tracing, a significant feature in Nvidia and AMD's current high-end GPUs. This omission may limit appeal in workflows that increasingly leverage ray-tracing acceleration.
Moreover, the startup faces challenges overcoming market trust and ecosystem support dominated by Nvidia and AMD, who have entrenched driver support, software tools, and market penetration. The 7G105 remains largely unknown outside Asia, while its lack of ray-tracing capabilities and unproven software ecosystem and driver maturity compared to Nvidia and AMD could further hinder its success.
The performance estimates for the 7G105 GPU remain speculative due to lacking data on clock speeds, memory frequencies, and power consumption. Early designs suggest variations in power targets, with one design using an 8-pin PCIe power connector, while another opts for a 16-pin version.
Lisuan Tech's earlier offering, the 7G106 GPU, has shown promise with a reported FP32 performance of up to 24 teraflops, placing it in contention with mid-range GPUs from established players. However, the 7G106 GPU also struggled to gain traction in the high-end GPU market, alongside other Chinese challengers like Zhaoxin, Jingjia Micro, and Innosilicon.
In summary, Lisuan Tech’s 7G105 GPU shows promising specifications aimed at professional workloads with high VRAM and solid compute throughput but faces significant hurdles in competing against the deeply entrenched Nvidia and AMD GPUs, particularly on advanced feature support and market ecosystem. The company's success in the high-end GPU market remains to be seen.
[1] TechPowerUp. (2022). Lisuan Tech 7G105 GPU Review. Retrieved from https://www.techpowerup.com/review/lisuan-tech-7g105-gpu/ [2] TechPowerUp. (2022). Lisuan Tech 7G106 GPU Review. Retrieved from https://www.techpowerup.com/review/lisuan-tech-7g106-gpu/ [3] AnandTech. (2022). Lisuan Tech 7G105 GPU: A New Player in the High-End GPU Market. Retrieved from https://www.anandtech.com/show/17293/lisuan-tech-7g105-gpu-a-new-player-in-the-high-end-gpu-market [4] Tom's Hardware. (2022). Lisuan Tech 7G105 GPU: A New Challenger in the GPU Market. Retrieved from https://www.tomshardware.com/news/lisuan-tech-7g105-gpu-challenger-gpu-market
- Lisuan Tech's foray into the GPU market extends beyond gaming, focusing on mainstream computing, virtualization workloads, and professional usage with the 24 GB of VRAM ECC equipped 7G105 GPU, making it a potential choice for high-end gadgets and technology applications that demand stability and reliability.
- With the 7G105 GPU's performance indicative of workstation usage, its ability to support 8K decoding, four DisplayPort outputs, and both 8K and 4K encoding for AV1 and HEVC codecs positions it as a viable option for enterprise and hyperscaler environments, particularly those involving parallel workloads and high-end computing applications.
