Typically， articles about new product releases are written on weekdays， as manufacturers usually hold their press conferences then. However， a company called “Lijuan Technology” did something unusual by working overtime on a weekend. This seemingly minor event was overshadowed by a truly significant announcement: the release of China’s first independently developed 6nm process graphics card!
Yes， we’re talking about a graphics card that can be plugged into a computer for gaming. According to Lijuan Technology’s presentation， this new card surpasses NVIDIA’s RTX 4060 in rasterization performance and can even run the game “Black Myth: Wukong” smoothly at 1080p. After witnessing Lijuan Technology’s new product launch yesterday， the author is still in a state of astonishment.
This is particularly striking when considering the financial backing. Reports indicate that Lijuan Technology had raised only 628 million yuan by 2024. In contrast， industry giants like NVIDIA， Intel， and AMD， whom we often criticize for their pricing or performance， invest tens of billions in research and development. It’s remarkable that a domestic chip startup could develop a graphics card comparable to the RTX 4060 with roughly one-tenth of the resources. If these claims hold true， this could be a watershed moment for the domestic GPU industry， akin to the “DeepSeek” story in the AI model space.
For those eager for detailed performance tests of these new products， a slight wait is in order. The consumer-grade 7G106 and professional-grade 7G105 graphics cards are expected to begin sampling in August and mass production in September. This timeline suggests that comprehensive hands-on reviews will be available later in the year.
However， for those curious about other details disclosed during the launch event， here’s a breakdown of the information released regarding these two domestically developed GPUs.
Firstly， the core GPU architecture for both graphics cards is based on TSMC’s N6 process and utilizes Lijuan Technology’s self-developed TrueGPU graphics architecture. This signifies a complete in-house design from computation cores to instruction sets， moving away from the common industry practice of licensing existing IP and then optimizing it.
What are the advantages of this approach? Lijuan Technology highlighted several points during the presentation. We know that 3D rendering in GPUs， which creates the visuals we see， is built upon countless triangles assembled like building blocks. The GPU’s rendering process involves the splitting， assembling， and subsequent calculation of these triangles. Lijuan Technology claims that the 7G106 reconstructs the execution logic of its graphics pipeline for triangle rendering， employing intelligent out-of-order execution. It can also dynamically allocate compute units based on workload. Unlike traditional GPUs that follow rigid， step-by-step execution， this approach can directly improve rendering efficiency by up to 50% in optimized scenarios.
Furthermore， the Lijuan 7G106 supports dual emission of FP32 or INT32 instructions and stores matrix data in block formats. These features can optimize VRAM usage efficiency by up to 40%. From these supported features， Lijuan’s GPU design appears to be quite forward-thinking. For instance， the FP32/INT32 dual issue capability was introduced by NVIDIA in their 20 series GPUs， by AMD in their RX 7000 series， and by Intel in their Arc A700 series of discrete GPUs. This positions Lijuan’s technology as being on par with industry advancements in this regard.
Moving on to the hardware specifications of the two graphics cards:
According to the launch event recording， the consumer-grade Lijuan 7G106 features 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM. However， foundational hardware information such as power consumption and clock speeds was not disclosed. Based on industry leaks， the Lijuan 7G106 is reported to have a 192-bit memory bus， 192 Texture Mapping Units (TMUs)， and 96 Render Output Units (ROPs).
If these leaked specifications prove accurate， the Lijuan 7G106 possesses double the number of TMUs and ROPs compared to the RTX 4060. This could explain its reported performance exceeding the 4060 in benchmarks. Additionally， the 7G106 supports mainstream APIs such as DirectX 12， Vulkan 1.3， OpenGL 4.6， and OpenCL 3.0， indicating a capable but not cutting-edge feature set.
The absence of support for the latest versions of DX12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4 suggests that the Lijuan 7G106 might not support ray tracing or Variable Rate Shading (VRS). This could potentially impact in-game visual effects and frame rates， placing it at a disadvantage in rendering capabilities.
A visual depiction of Variable Rate Shading， illustrating reduced shading rates from left to right.
In contrast， NVIDIA， the industry leader Lijuan aims to challenge， introduced tile-based rendering and an improved scheduler in its GTX 900 series back in 2014， technologies that are similar to Lijuan’s “intelligent out-of-order rendering.” However， NVIDIA only began supporting VRS with its RTX 20 series four years later， along with full DX12 Ultimate API support. This indicates that Lijuan’s future products will likely need further development to catch up in these advanced areas.
Regarding other aspects， the Lijuan 7G106 utilizes the PCIe 4.0 x16 interface and provides four DisplayPort 1.4 outputs. Notably， the reference design lacks HDMI ports.
The professional card， 7G105， appears to be positioned in the mid-to-high-end segment. It is equipped with 24GB of GDDR6 ECC VRAM， a maximum texture fill rate of 384 GT/s， and a maximum pixel fill rate of 192 GP/s. It supports FP32 and INT8 calculations， boasting a maximum FP32 throughput of 24 TFLOPS， making it suitable for high-pixel rendering and large model training.
While the architectural and specification details currently available are limited， performance benchmarks are what truly capture the attention of gamers. As previously mentioned， the rasterization performance of the Lijuan 7G106 is reportedly stronger than the RTX 4060.
For example， in Geekbench’s OpenCL test， which measures general GPU computing power， the Lijuan 7G106 achieved a score of 111，290， surpassing the RTX 4060’s 101，028 by 10%. This score even approaches that of the RTX 5060. If the product is competitively priced upon release， offering superior rasterization performance for less money would be a significant advantage， not just over AMD， but also in the broader market.
In the 3DMark Fire Strike (1080p) test， which is more indicative of gaming performance， the Lijuan 7G106 scored 26，800. For comparison， the RTX 4060 typically scores between 27，000 and 28，000. This means the Lijuan 7G106 is nearly on par with the 4060 in this synthetic benchmark.
In the more demanding 4K resolution test， Steel Nomad， the Lijuan 7G106 achieved a score of 2256. Reference data suggests the RTX 4060 scores around 2302 in the same test. These results indicate that the Lijuan 7G106 is competitive in rasterization performance， closely matching or even slightly exceeding the RTX 4060 in some synthetic gaming benchmarks.
In summary， while the Lijuan 7G106 might not comprehensively match the NVIDIA RTX 4060 across all aspects， its rasterization performance is clearly on par， and it demonstrates advantages in specific areas. However， as we all know， NVIDIA’s strength lies not only in its hardware but also in its software ecosystem， with DLSS being a prime example.
According to the launch event recording， Lijuan has developed a DLSS-like technology called NRSS， though no live demonstration was provided. During the presentation， a super-resolution demo using the game “Black Myth: Wukong” built with Game Science’s NXSR technology was showcased， rendering the game at 4K resolution by upscaling from a lower native resolution. For a mainstream card， however， focusing on 1080p performance is more relevant.
In “Black Myth: Wukong” at 1080p resolution with high graphics settings， the Lijuan 7G106 averaged over 70 frames per second. The performance remained stable during combat， with no significant frame drops when encountering enemies， activating skills， or during heavy visual effects. This performance is comparable to the RTX 4060 running “Black Myth: Wukong” without DLSS enabled. While not strictly necessary， this comparison highlights the raw performance of the Lijuan card.
Even more surprisingly， in “Ming Dynasty: Abyss Feather，” the Lijuan 7G106 maintained frame rates above 70 FPS at 1080p resolution with high graphical settings. For reference， industry professionals testing this game found that the RTX 3060， with DLSS 4 frame generation， could achieve 149 FPS but exhibited noticeable stuttering. Given that this game was only recently released， Lijuan likely had limited time for game-specific optimizations. The fact that the 7G106 can achieve playable frame rates suggests a larger core design， substantial VRAM， and high memory bandwidth contributing to its raw performance.
In the older AAA title “Shadow of the Tomb Raider，” the Lijuan 7G106 performed less impressively， averaging just over 80 FPS. Under similar graphical settings， the RTX 4060， with its game-specific optimizations， achieved 147 FPS. This highlights a key challenge for domestic GPUs: hardware advancement is only the first step. The subsequent stages of driver optimization and game adaptation remain crucial. The author intends to conduct a comprehensive review if a sample of this graphics card becomes available.
It’s highly probable that with further driver optimizations， the Lijuan 7G106 can reach the performance level of the RTX 4060. Gamers in China are generally supportive of domestic GPU initiatives. Even if the final performance falls short of the 4060 or if minor bugs are present， as long as the pricing is reasonable and the company is open to community feedback， consumers are likely to be willing to grow alongside the product.
Let’s consider the example of another domestic GPU， the Moore Threads S80. Initially， users criticized the S80 for its lack of game compatibility and optimization. However， after a price reduction， with some discounts bringing it down to around 1，000 yuan， the community’s perception shifted dramatically， with many expressing positive sentiment towards the brand. This suggests that pricing strategy and user engagement will be critical for Lijuan’s success.
Therefore， the question remains: what do you think Lijuan’s graphics card will be priced at?
