Radeon 520 vs GeForce GTX 970M SLI

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTX 970M SLI and Radeon 520, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

GTX 970M SLI
2014
2x 6 GB GDDR5, 162 Watt
24.40
+1096%

GTX 970M SLI outperforms 520 by a whopping 1096% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking228882
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency10.332.80
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2017)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameno dataBanks
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date7 October 2014 (10 years ago)18 April 2017 (7 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 cores2560320
Core clock speed924 MHz1030 MHz
Boost clock speed1038 MHzno data
Number of transistors2x 5200 Million690 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)162 Watt50 Watt
Texture fill rateno data20.60
Floating-point processing powerno data0.6592 TFLOPS
ROPsno data8
TMUsno data20

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 sizelargeno data
Interfaceno dataPCIe 3.0 x8
Supplementary power connectorsno dataNone
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2x 6 GB2 GB
Memory bus width2x 192 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed5000 MHz1125 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data36 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 Connectorsno dataNo 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.

DirectX12_112 (11_1)
Shader Modelno data5.1
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data1.2
Vulkan-1.2.131
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.

GTX 970M SLI 24.40
+1096%
Radeon 520 2.04

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.

GTX 970M SLI 18870
+836%
Radeon 520 2017

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.

GTX 970M SLI 36119
+586%
Radeon 520 5266

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

GTX 970M SLI 14760
+1019%
Radeon 520 1319

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

GTX 970M SLI 96944
+1052%
Radeon 520 8413

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

GTX 970M SLI 256573
+231%
Radeon 520 77543

Unigine Heaven 3.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.

GTX 970M SLI 169
+1304%
Radeon 520 12

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:

Full HD86
+514%
14
−514%
4K40
+1233%
3−4
−1233%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
+900%
4−5
−900%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 50−55
+657%
7−8
−657%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45
+1267%
3−4
−1267%
Battlefield 5 80−85
+7900%
1−2
−7900%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+900%
5−6
−900%
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
+900%
4−5
−900%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+1767%
3−4
−1767%
Far Cry New Dawn 60−65
+1180%
5−6
−1180%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+1688%
8−9
−1688%
Hitman 3 45−50
+600%
7−8
−600%
Horizon Zero Dawn 110−120
+528%
18−20
−528%
Metro Exodus 80−85
+1100%
7−8
−1100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+1500%
4−5
−1500%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85
+720%
10−11
−720%
Watch Dogs: Legion 100−110
+183%
35−40
−183%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 50−55
+657%
7−8
−657%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45
+1267%
3−4
−1267%
Battlefield 5 80−85
+7900%
1−2
−7900%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+900%
5−6
−900%
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
+900%
4−5
−900%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+1767%
3−4
−1767%
Far Cry New Dawn 60−65
+1180%
5−6
−1180%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+1688%
8−9
−1688%
Hitman 3 45−50
+600%
7−8
−600%
Horizon Zero Dawn 110−120
+528%
18−20
−528%
Metro Exodus 80−85
+1100%
7−8
−1100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+1500%
4−5
−1500%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85
+720%
10−11
−720%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 136
+656%
18
−656%
Watch Dogs: Legion 100−110
+183%
35−40
−183%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 50−55
+657%
7−8
−657%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45
+1267%
3−4
−1267%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+900%
5−6
−900%
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45
+900%
4−5
−900%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+1767%
3−4
−1767%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+1688%
8−9
−1688%
Hitman 3 45−50
+600%
7−8
−600%
Horizon Zero Dawn 110−120
+528%
18−20
−528%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85
+720%
10−11
−720%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 48
+700%
6
−700%
Watch Dogs: Legion 100−110
+183%
35−40
−183%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+1500%
4−5
−1500%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 45−50
+1433%
3−4
−1433%
Far Cry New Dawn 35−40
+1133%
3−4
−1133%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 24−27
+1150%
2−3
−1150%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27
+1100%
2−3
−1100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 27−30
+2700%
1−2
−2700%
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
+1400%
1−2
−1400%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+1300%
2−3
−1300%
Forza Horizon 4 130−140
+1290%
10−11
−1290%
Hitman 3 27−30
+314%
7−8
−314%
Horizon Zero Dawn 50−55
+733%
6−7
−733%
Metro Exodus 45−50
+1433%
3−4
−1433%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 50−55
+1225%
4−5
−1225%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−33
+2900%
1−2
−2900%
Watch Dogs: Legion 130−140
+1155%
10−12
−1155%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45
+720%
5−6
−720%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 24−27
+1100%
2−3
−1100%
Far Cry New Dawn 18−20
+1800%
1−2
−1800%
Hitman 3 18−20
+1800%
1−2
−1800%
Horizon Zero Dawn 120−130
+1150%
10−11
−1150%
Metro Exodus 27−30
+1250%
2−3
−1250%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 28
+1300%
2−3
−1300%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
+650%
2−3
−650%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
+1200%
1−2
−1200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
+1300%
1−2
−1300%
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7 0−1
Far Cry 5 12−14
+1200%
1−2
−1200%
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
+1550%
2−3
−1550%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 27−30
+1350%
2−3
−1350%
Watch Dogs: Legion 10−12 0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 21−24
+600%
3−4
−600%

This is how GTX 970M SLI and Radeon 520 compete in popular games:

  • GTX 970M SLI is 514% faster in 1080p
  • GTX 970M SLI is 1233% faster in 4K

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

  • in Battlefield 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GTX 970M SLI is 7900% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, GTX 970M SLI surpassed Radeon 520 in all 54 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 24.40 2.04
Recency 7 October 2014 18 April 2017
Power consumption (TDP) 162 Watt 50 Watt

GTX 970M SLI has a 1096.1% higher aggregate performance score.

Radeon 520, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 2 years, and 224% lower power consumption.

The GeForce GTX 970M SLI is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon 520 in performance tests.


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

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI
GeForce GTX 970M SLI
AMD Radeon 520
Radeon 520

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


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Questions & comments

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