GeForce RTX 3060 Ti vs GT 520M

Place in performance ranking	1127	43
Place by popularity	not in top-100	35
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.01	44.69
Architecture	Fermi (2010−2014)	Ampere (2020−2022)
GPU code name	N12P-GP/LV	Ampere GA104
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	5 January 2011 (13 years ago)	1 December 2020 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$59.99	$399

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RTX 3060 Ti has 446800% better value for money than GT 520M.

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	48	4864
Core clock speed	740 / 600 MHz	1410 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1665 MHz
Number of transistors	585 million	17,400 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	12 Watt	220 Watt
Texture fill rate	5.376	253.1
Floating-point performance	129.02 gflops	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on GeForce GT 520M and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	242 mm
Width	no data	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	None	1x 12-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	DDR3 (GDDR5)	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	1536 MB	8 GB
Memory bus width	64 / 128 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	800 / 900 MHz	14000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	12.8 GB/s	448.0 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	No outputs	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	no data	+

Supported technologies

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

Optimus

no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.1	6.5
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.1	2.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.2
CUDA	+	8.6

Synthetic benchmark performance

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

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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 520M 0.73

RTX 3060 Ti 53.16
+7182%

RTX 3060 Ti outperforms GT 520M by 7182% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. 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.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

GT 520M 281

RTX 3060 Ti 20518
+7202%

RTX 3060 Ti outperforms GT 520M by 7202% in Passmark.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GT 520M 2280

RTX 3060 Ti 78597
+3347%

RTX 3060 Ti outperforms GT 520M by 3347% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GT 520M 502

RTX 3060 Ti 35683
+7008%

RTX 3060 Ti outperforms GT 520M by 7008% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 9%

GT 520M 1215

RTX 3060 Ti 108312
+8815%

RTX 3060 Ti outperforms GT 520M by 8815% in GeekBench 5 OpenCL.

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	7 −7043%	500−550 +7043%
Full HD	12 −1058%	139 +1058%
1200p	7 −7043%	500−550 +7043%
1440p	1−2 −8100%	82 +8100%
4K	0−1	50

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

3−4

−2667%

83
+2667%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −2320%	121 +2320%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −3333%	100−110 +3333%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −2600%	81 +2600%
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −12800%	120−130 +12800%
Hitman 3	5−6 −2140%	110−120 +2140%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −1773%	200−210 +1773%
Red Dead Redemption 2	0−1	110−120
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 −3383%	200−210 +3383%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −365%	140−150 +365%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −3820%	196 +3820%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −3333%	100−110 +3333%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −2500%	78 +2500%
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −12800%	120−130 +12800%
Hitman 3	5−6 −2140%	110−120 +2140%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −1773%	200−210 +1773%
Red Dead Redemption 2	0−1	110−120
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 −3100%	192 +3100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−11 −1000%	110−120 +1000%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −365%	140−150 +365%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −1400%	75 +1400%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −3333%	100−110 +3333%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −2467%	77 +2467%
Hitman 3	5−6 −2140%	110−120 +2140%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −1173%	140 +1173%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 −2800%	174 +2800%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−11 −820%	92 +820%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −148%	77 +148%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

0−1

110−120

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	0−1	110−120
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −8100%	80−85 +8100%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	0−1	65
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −5100%	52 +5100%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −6100%	60−65 +6100%
Hitman 3	6−7 −1133%	70−75 +1133%
Horizon Zero Dawn	3−4 −3700%	114 +3700%
Watch Dogs: Legion	2−3 −12250%	247 +12250%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−2933%

90−95
+2933%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn

0−1

45−50

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 −4400%	45 +4400%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	40

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

−2450%

50−55
+2450%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	95 +0%	95 +0%
Battlefield 5	160−170 +0%	160−170 +0%
Far Cry 5	100−110 +0%	100−110 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	210−220 +0%	210−220 +0%
Metro Exodus	140−150 +0%	140−150 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	81 +0%	81 +0%
Battlefield 5	160−170 +0%	160−170 +0%
Far Cry 5	100−110 +0%	100−110 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	210−220 +0%	210−220 +0%
Metro Exodus	140−150 +0%	140−150 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	74 +0%	74 +0%
Far Cry 5	100−110 +0%	100−110 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	173 +0%	173 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	60 +0%	60 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	60−65 +0%	60−65 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	260−270 +0%	260−270 +0%
Metro Exodus	93 +0%	93 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	139 +0%	139 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	55−60 +0%	55−60 +0%
Hitman 3	57 +0%	57 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	210−220 +0%	210−220 +0%
Metro Exodus	75−80 +0%	75−80 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	77 +0%	77 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	25 +0%	25 +0%
Far Cry 5	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	103 +0%	103 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	84 +0%	84 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	33 +0%	33 +0%

This is how GT 520M and RTX 3060 Ti compete in popular games:

RTX 3060 Ti is 7043% faster in 900p
RTX 3060 Ti is 1058% faster in 1080p
RTX 3060 Ti is 7043% faster in 1200p
RTX 3060 Ti is 8100% faster in 1440p

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

in Far Cry New Dawn, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the RTX 3060 Ti is 12800% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 3060 Ti is ahead in 35 tests (54%)
there's a draw in 30 tests (46%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.73	53.16
Recency	5 January 2011	1 December 2020
Maximum RAM amount	1536 MB	8 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	12 Watt	220 Watt

GT 520M has 1733.3% lower power consumption.

RTX 3060 Ti, on the other hand, has a 7182.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 9 years, a 433.3% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 400% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GT 520M in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce GT 520M is a notebook card while GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is a desktop one.

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

Vote for your favorite

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GeForce GT 520M

GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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

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