NVS 5200M vs GeForce GT 420M

Place in the ranking	1101	1025
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	3.12	3.71
Architecture	Fermi (2010−2014)	Fermi 2.0 (2010−2014)
GPU code name	GF108	GF117
Market segment	Laptop	Mobile workstation
Release date	3 September 2010 (14 years ago)	1 June 2012 (12 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	96	96
Core clock speed	500 MHz	625 MHz
Number of transistors	585 million	585 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	23 Watt	25 Watt
Texture fill rate	8.000	10.00
Floating-point processing power	0.192 TFLOPS	0.24 TFLOPS
ROPs	4	4
TMUs	16	16

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop size	medium sized	medium sized
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	MXM

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	DDR3	DDR3
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	1 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	800 MHz	900 MHz
Memory bandwidth	25.6 GB/s	14.4 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors

No outputs

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Optimus

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 API	12 (11_0)
Shader Model	5.1	5.1
OpenGL	4.5	4.6
OpenCL	1.1	1.1
Vulkan	N/A	N/A
CUDA	+	+

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GT 420M 1.03

NVS 5200M 1.33
+29.1%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

GT 420M 397

NVS 5200M 512
+29%

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

GT 420M 685

NVS 5200M 1008
+47.2%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

GT 420M 3051

NVS 5200M 4268
+39.9%

GeekBench 5 OpenCL

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.

GT 420M 1583

NVS 5200M 2196
+38.7%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p	12 −16.7%	14−16 +16.7%
Full HD	17 +88.9%	9 −88.9%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

3−4

−33.3%

4−5
+33.3%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −50%	3−4 +50%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	3−4
Hitman 3	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 −7.7%	14−16 +7.7%
Red Dead Redemption 2	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 −14.3%	8−9 +14.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −3.1%	30−35 +3.1%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −50%	3−4 +50%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	3−4
Hitman 3	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 −7.7%	14−16 +7.7%
Red Dead Redemption 2	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 −14.3%	8−9 +14.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −3.1%	30−35 +3.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	3−4
Hitman 3	5−6 −20%	6−7 +20%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 −7.7%	14−16 +7.7%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 −14.3%	8−9 +14.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −3.1%	30−35 +3.1%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

1−2

−100%

2−3
+100%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	4−5 −25%	5−6 +25%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	0−1	1−2
Watch Dogs: Legion	4−5 −50%	6−7 +50%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

+0%

4−5

+0%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn

0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	1−2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	0−1
Far Cry 5	0−1	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

−50%

3−4
+50%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

0−1

This is how GT 420M and NVS 5200M compete in popular games:

NVS 5200M is 17% faster in 900p
GT 420M is 89% faster in 1080p

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Red Dead Redemption 2, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the NVS 5200M is 100% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

NVS 5200M is ahead in 28 tests (65%)
there's a draw in 15 tests (35%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.03	1.33
Recency	3 September 2010	1 June 2012
Chip lithography	40 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	23 Watt	25 Watt

GT 420M has 8.7% lower power consumption.

NVS 5200M, on the other hand, has a 29.1% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

The NVS 5200M is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GT 420M in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce GT 420M is a notebook graphics card while NVS 5200M is a mobile workstation one.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.