Loongson's 9A2000: China's Next-Gen GPU Promises RTX 2080-Level Performance

Loongson 9A2000 is a next-gen Chinese GPU with GeForce RTX 2080 level performance

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 2080, the company's first consumer GPU to include dedicated AI hardware, launched in 2018. One of the flagship GPUs for the Turing generation (second to the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti at launch), it's still a powerful GPU in 2024. However, after six years, the mainstream GeForce RTX 4060 performs similarly in a much more efficient package. Chinese chipmaker Loongson has announced that its next-gen 9A2000 graphics card for PC will perform similarly to the GeForce RTX 2080, making it roughly eight to ten times faster than the company's previous 9A1000 GPU. This news arrives via ITHome (translated); however, there is one big caveat. Like other Chinese GPUs from Moore Threads, DirectX 12 compatibility is a question mark, so performance might be able to reach the heights of the GeForce RTX 2080 - but in-game performance on a per-title basis will most likely fall very short of that target. Loongson also has a more entry-level GPU on the way, the 9A1000, which targets Radeon RX 550 performance levels. These announcements were made at a recent investor or financial results meeting, where the company was asked if the next-gen 9A2000 graphics card could run the game of the moment, Black Myth: Wukong. The answer was that, theoretically, the game would run fine; however, it would come down to software support and drivers. Loongson is also developing processors to rival AMD and Intel for running Windows, so it will be interesting to see how this all pans out. A Chinese company creating CPUs and GPUs for enthusiasts and PC gamers would present quite a shake-up.

Next-gen Chinese GPU touts RTX 2080-level performance -- Loongson claims 9A2000 is up to 10x faster than the 9A1000

Chinese chipmaker Loongson has a new GPU on the way that blows its current-gen 9A1000 out of the water. According to a senior company executive speaking today, the upcoming Loongson 9A2000 will deliver performance that is "8-10 times that of 9A1000," reports Chinese language tech site ITHome. The machine translation suggests that the new 9A2000 is comparable to Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2080. Nvidia's Turing architecture RTX 2080 is still a very serviceable graphics card in 2024, as evidenced by our frequently updated GPU benchmarks rankings. The headlining information comes from Loongson Chairman and General Manager Hu Weiwu, who spoke during a Q&A session at the firm's 2024 semi-annual results briefing. Hu answered a question about the status of the current generation 9A1000 and positioning plans for the 9A2000. The answer from the top Loongson exec revealed that the 9A1000 and 9A2000 GPUs will co-exist as they address pretty different markets. Specifically, the 9A1000 GPU will be taped out by year-end and address entry-level users with what is expected to be Radeon RX 550-level performance. The 9A1000 card will be suitable for budget systems, with minimal 3D rendering demands, and where 32 TOPS of AI inference is sufficient. However, we were much more interested in hearing some of the first details regarding the Loongson 9A2000 GPU. Hu stated that the new 9A2000 GPU's performance will be "8-10 times that of 9A1000." Moreover, for those of us needing a more familiar frame of reference, he told briefing listeners that "it is comparable to Nvidia RTX 2080." PC enthusiasts outside of China might not flock to a Loongson GPU that can match the 2018 vintage RTX 2080 and currently lacks DX12 support (DX12 compatibility is just a 'maybe'). However, if the price is right and the performance lives up to the tease today, some may consider buying a 9A2000 for testing, tinkering, or even out of sheer curiosity. An RTX 2080 is still higher than most PC games' minimum to recommended spec levels in 2024, but will you be able to enjoy titles like Black Myth: Wukong? Thankfully, Hu answered this question during the Q&A. The exec explained, "In terms of GPGPU performance, the display performance of 9A2000 should be able to support it." We guess that's one way of saying no and hinting that the platform/drivers won't allow gamers to have any anthropomorphic monkey fun unless there are some key software and driver developments. However, we note that DX11 is indeed enough to run this title. We published a deep dive on Black Myth: Wukong PC gaming last month. Referencing our GPU hierarchy data, an RTX 2080 user could likely enjoy about 90 to 100 FPS in the game at 1080p medium settings (no RT). Officially, the recommended hardware levels call for an RTX 2060 or better GPU, but we aren't sure what quality settings and frame rate that target.