Graphics cards. We all need them for gaming or to make videos for you to watch. As you know, we are now going through a chip shortage and that leaves us gamers stranded because of such unprecedented demand for graphics cards.
In an attempt to resolve this issue, NVIDIA® has launched a new variant of existing GPUs called the Lite Hash Rate, or LHR for short. But there are a lot of concerns regarding LHR. What’s different? What side effects does an LHR card have? Today, we will explore both LHR and non-LHR cards to test if these cards are any different when it comes to gaming performance.
With this crisis running amok, we need a solution. Introducing, the LHR variants of the existing GPUs. This leads to the next question from gamers – Does LHR affect gaming performance?
Thanks to ZOTAC, we manage to get our hands on 2 units of GeForce RTX™ 3070 Twin Edge OC, one LHR, and one non-LHR model to test if there’s any difference when it comes to real-life gaming performance.
Both these cards use the exact same fans, same heatsinks, same VRMs, and same memory chips – the only difference is LHR vs non-LHR – and that was also stated in the box in a few different places.
And from the test results, we can see that the gaming performance is pretty much neck and neck. Apart from the frame rates within margin of error, even the temperature and power consumption are identical.
But, ZOTAC made it really clear that you are getting an LHR card. At multiple different spots on the box and even on the card’s label itself, it states LHR.
I’m not sure how the myth even started whereby LHR cards will have lower performance than non-LHR cards, but you can kind of see it with your own eyes now. Myth busted lul.
So… what’s the verdict?
In conclusion, LHR cards are made so that gamers can actually get their hands on these GeForce RTX™ 30-series of graphics cards. Now we can confirm that the gaming performance is pretty much the same, there’s no reason to get torn between LHR and non-LHR if you’re really going to use the card just for gaming purposes.
Non-LHR vs LHR versionIn fact, there should be more LHR cards arriving in the market soon which will somehow stabilize the availability and pricing.
To learn more and where to buy
LHR and non-LHR cards might sound a bit daunting for consumers who are just shopping for a graphics card. But as shown here, both are identical when it comes to gaming.
To learn more about the GeForce RTX™ 30-series of GPUs – and specifically, the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX™ 3070 Twin Edge OC, visit ZOTAC’s website here.
To purchase the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTXâ„¢ 3070 Twin Edge OC, here are the links:
To learn more about other GPUS within the GeForce RTXâ„¢ 30-series of GPUs, visit these two links:
