GeForce GT 520 PCIe x1 vs GTX 850M

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Primary details

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

Place in the ranking570not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency10.09no data
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2017)Fermi 2.0 (2010−2014)
GPU code nameGM107GF119
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date12 March 2014 (10 years ago)13 April 2011 (13 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 cores64048
Core clock speedUp to 936 MHz810 MHz
Number of transistors1,870 million292 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)45 Watt29 Watt
Texture fill rate36.086.480
Floating-point processing power1.155 TFLOPS0.1555 TFLOPS
ROPs164
TMUs408

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 sizemedium sizedno data
Bus supportPCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x1
Lengthno data152 mm
Widthno data1-slot
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 typeDDR3DDR3
Maximum RAM amount2 GB1 GB
Standard memory configurationDDR3 or GDDR5no data
Memory bus width128 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speedUp to 2500 MHz900 MHz
Memory bandwidth80.0 GB/s14.4 GB/s
Shared memory-no data

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 outputs1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA
eDP 1.2 signal supportUp to 3840x2160no data
LVDS signal supportUp to 1920x1200no data
VGA аnalog display supportUp to 2048x1536no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) supportUp to 3840x2160no data
HDMI++
HDCP content protection+-
7.1 channel HD audio on HDMI+-
TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bitstreaming+-

Supported technologies

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

H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder+-
Optimus+-
Ansel+no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_0)12 (11_0)
Shader Model5.15.1
OpenGL4.54.6
OpenCL1.11.1
Vulkan1.1.126N/A
CUDA+2.1

Pros & cons summary


Recency 12 March 2014 13 April 2011
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 1 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 45 Watt 29 Watt

GTX 850M has an age advantage of 2 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

GT 520 PCIe x1, on the other hand, has 55.2% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 850M and GeForce GT 520 PCIe x1. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 850M is a notebook card while GeForce GT 520 PCIe x1 is a desktop one.


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 850M
GeForce GTX 850M
NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 PCIe x1
GeForce GT 520 PCIe x1

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

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Questions & comments

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