GeForce RTX 4090 vs GT 520M

Place in the ranking	1161	1
Place by popularity	not in top-100	6
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.01	18.83
Power efficiency	4.23	15.25
Architecture	Fermi (2010−2014)	Ada Lovelace (2022−2024)
GPU code name	GF108	AD102
Market segment	Laptop	Desktop
Release date	5 January 2011 (13 years ago)	20 September 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$59.99	$1,599

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RTX 4090 has 188200% better value for money than GT 520M.

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	48	16384
Core clock speed	600 MHz	2235 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2520 MHz
Number of transistors	585 million	76,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	12 Watt	450 Watt
Texture fill rate	4.800	1,290
Floating-point processing power	0.1152 TFLOPS	82.58 TFLOPS
ROPs	4	176
TMUs	8	512
Tensor Cores	no data	512
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	128

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	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	no data	304 mm
Width	no data	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	None	1x 16-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	GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	24 GB
Memory bus width	64 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	800 MHz	1313 MHz
Memory bandwidth	12.8 GB/s	1.01 TB/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 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	-	+

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 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.1	6.8
OpenGL	4.5	4.6
OpenCL	1.1	3.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.3
CUDA	+	8.9

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 520M 0.74

RTX 4090 100.00
+13414%

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 520M 285

RTX 4090 38522
+13416%

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 520M 502

RTX 4090 104598
+20736%

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 520M 2280

RTX 4090 137609
+5935%

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	8 −13025%	1050−1100 +13025%
Full HD	12 −2058%	259 +2058%
1200p	7 −12757%	900−950 +12757%
1440p	1−2 −19900%	200 +19900%
4K	1−2 −14200%	143 +14200%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	5.00	6.17
1440p	59.99	8.00
4K	59.99	11.18

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

3−4

−7400%

225
+7400%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −4600%	235 +4600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −3900%	120−130 +3900%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −7300%	222 +7300%
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −20000%	200−210 +20000%
Hitman 3	5−6 −2480%	120−130 +2480%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −3100%	350−400 +3100%
Red Dead Redemption 2	0−1	120−130
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 −7600%	450−500 +7600%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −397%	150−160 +397%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −3960%	200−210 +3960%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −3900%	120−130 +3900%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −7033%	214 +7033%
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −20000%	200−210 +20000%
Hitman 3	5−6 −2480%	120−130 +2480%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −3100%	350−400 +3100%
Red Dead Redemption 2	0−1	120−130
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 −9033%	548 +9033%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−11 −2310%	240−250 +2310%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −397%	150−160 +397%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −3480%	179 +3480%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 −3900%	120−130 +3900%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −6900%	210 +6900%
Hitman 3	5−6 −2480%	120−130 +2480%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −3482%	394 +3482%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 −8917%	541 +8917%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−11 −2950%	305 +2950%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −394%	153 +394%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

0−1

120−130

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	0−1	160−170
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −11100%	110−120 +11100%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	0−1	155
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −15300%	154 +15300%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −8300%	80−85 +8300%
Hitman 3	6−7 −2200%	130−140 +2200%
Horizon Zero Dawn	3−4 −12833%	388 +12833%
Watch Dogs: Legion	2−3 −11900%	240−250 +11900%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−4200%

120−130
+4200%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn

0−1

65−70

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 −11900%	120 +11900%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	120

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

−5450%

110−120
+5450%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	287 +0%	287 +0%
Battlefield 5	240−250 +0%	240−250 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	290−300 +0%	290−300 +0%
Metro Exodus	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	248 +0%	248 +0%
Battlefield 5	240−250 +0%	240−250 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	290−300 +0%	290−300 +0%
Metro Exodus	150−160 +0%	150−160 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	220 +0%	220 +0%
Far Cry 5	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	290−300 +0%	290−300 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	183 +0%	183 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	270−280 +0%	270−280 +0%
Metro Exodus	152 +0%	152 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	504 +0%	504 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	268 +0%	268 +0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	85−90 +0%	85−90 +0%
Hitman 3	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	105 +0%	105 +0%
Metro Exodus	140−150 +0%	140−150 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	281 +0%	281 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	80 +0%	80 +0%
Far Cry 5	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	250−260 +0%	250−260 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	282 +0%	282 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	117 +0%	117 +0%

This is how GT 520M and RTX 4090 compete in popular games:

RTX 4090 is 13025% faster in 900p
RTX 4090 is 2058% faster in 1080p
RTX 4090 is 12757% faster in 1200p
RTX 4090 is 19900% faster in 1440p
RTX 4090 is 14200% faster in 4K

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 4090 is 20000% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 4090 is ahead in 35 tests (54%)
there's a draw in 30 tests (46%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.74	100.00
Recency	5 January 2011	20 September 2022
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	24 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	12 Watt	450 Watt

GT 520M has 3650% lower power consumption.

RTX 4090, on the other hand, has a 13413.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 11 years, a 2300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 700% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 4090 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 4090 is a desktop one.

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