Radeon RX 6900 XT vs HD Graphics 520

Place in the ranking	857	21
Place by popularity	43	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	29.85
Power efficiency	9.93	16.03
Architecture	Generation 9.0 (2015−2016)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Skylake GT2	Navi 21
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	1 September 2015 (9 years ago)	28 October 2020 (4 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$999

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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	192	5120
Core clock speed	300 MHz	1825 MHz
Boost clock speed	900 MHz	2250 MHz
Number of transistors	189 million	26,800 million
Manufacturing process technology	14 nm+	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	15 Watt	300 Watt
Texture fill rate	21.60	720.0
Floating-point processing power	0.3456 TFLOPS	23.04 TFLOPS
ROPs	3	128
TMUs	24	320
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	80

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).

Interface	Ring Bus	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	267 mm
Width	IGP	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	no data	2x 8-pin

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	DDR3L/LPDDR3/DDR4	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	32 GB	16 GB
Memory bus width	System Shared	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	System Shared	2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	512.0 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	Portable Device Dependent	1x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 1x USB Type-C
HDMI	-	+

Supported technologies

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

Quick Sync

no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.4	6.5
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	3.0	2.1
Vulkan	+	1.2

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.

HD Graphics 520 2.15

RX 6900 XT 69.44
+3130%

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.

HD Graphics 520 831

RX 6900 XT 26796
+3125%

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.

HD Graphics 520 1294

RX 6900 XT 59119
+4470%

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.

HD Graphics 520 804

RX 6900 XT 50587
+6196%

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	20 −2900%	600−650 +2900%
Full HD	10 −1740%	184 +1740%
1440p	3−4 −4133%	127 +4133%
4K	2−3 −4150%	85 +4150%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	no data	5.43
1440p	no data	7.87
4K	no data	11.75

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

5−6

−2600%

130−140
+2600%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −1571%	117 +1571%
Battlefield 5	2−3 −11000%	220−230 +11000%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 −1883%	110−120 +1883%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −2600%	130−140 +2600%
Far Cry 5	5 −2240%	110−120 +2240%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 −2733%	170−180 +2733%
Forza Horizon 4	9−10 −2544%	230−240 +2544%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1743%	120−130 +1743%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 −1306%	250−260 +1306%
Metro Exodus	0−1	150−160
Red Dead Redemption 2	5−6 −2340%	120−130 +2340%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −2830%	290−300 +2830%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −322%	150−160 +322%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −3886%	279 +3886%
Battlefield 5	2−3 −11000%	220−230 +11000%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 −1883%	110−120 +1883%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −2600%	130−140 +2600%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −2825%	110−120 +2825%
Far Cry New Dawn	6−7 −2733%	170−180 +2733%
Forza Horizon 4	9−10 −2544%	230−240 +2544%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1743%	120−130 +1743%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 −1306%	250−260 +1306%
Metro Exodus	0−1	150−160
Red Dead Redemption 2	5−6 −2340%	120−130 +2340%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −2830%	290−300 +2830%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	13 −1046%	140−150 +1046%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −322%	150−160 +322%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 −1300%	98 +1300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	6−7 −1883%	110−120 +1883%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 −2600%	130−140 +2600%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −2825%	110−120 +2825%
Forza Horizon 4	9−10 −2656%	248 +2656%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1743%	120−130 +1743%
Horizon Zero Dawn	18−20 −1472%	283 +1472%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11 −2830%	290−300 +2830%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 −1162%	164 +1162%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 −236%	121 +236%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6

−2340%

120−130
+2340%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	3−4 −5400%	160−170 +5400%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 −3600%	110−120 +3600%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −4850%	99 +4850%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −8000%	80−85 +8000%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −7300%	70−75 +7300%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −4000%	80−85 +4000%
Hitman 3	7−8 −1343%	100−110 +1343%
Horizon Zero Dawn	6−7 −3633%	224 +3633%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 −12500%	120−130 +12500%
Watch Dogs: Legion	12−14 −1892%	230−240 +1892%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6

−2180%

110−120
+2180%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	0−1	85−90
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −6800%	65−70 +6800%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −3300%	68 +3300%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −6500%	66 +6500%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −5000%	50−55 +5000%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −4900%	50−55 +4900%
Watch Dogs: Legion	0−1	54

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−2400%

75−80
+2400%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

169

+0%

169

+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

142

+0%

142

+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

137

+0%

137

+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	109 +0%	109 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	270−280 +0%	270−280 +0%
Metro Exodus	117 +0%	117 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	190−200 +0%	190−200 +0%

4K
High Preset

Hitman 3	83 +0%	83 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	220−230 +0%	220−230 +0%
Metro Exodus	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	122 +0%	122 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	162 +0%	162 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%

This is how HD Graphics 520 and RX 6900 XT compete in popular games:

RX 6900 XT is 2900% faster in 900p
RX 6900 XT is 1740% faster in 1080p
RX 6900 XT is 4133% faster in 1440p
RX 6900 XT is 4150% faster in 4K

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

in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RX 6900 XT is 12500% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RX 6900 XT is ahead in 54 tests (79%)
there's a draw in 14 tests (21%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	2.15	69.44
Recency	1 September 2015	28 October 2020
Maximum RAM amount	32 GB	16 GB
Chip lithography	14 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	15 Watt	300 Watt

HD Graphics 520 has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and 1900% lower power consumption.

RX 6900 XT, on the other hand, has a 3129.8% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 5 years, and a 100% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 6900 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the HD Graphics 520 in performance tests.

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