Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU vs Radeon 520 Mobile DDR3

Primary details

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

Place in the rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)no data
GPU code nameBanksno data
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date18 April 2017 (7 years ago)31 October 2023 (1 year 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 cores32018
Core clock speed1030 MHzno data
Number of transistors690 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology28 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)50 Wattno data
Texture fill rate20.60no data
Floating-point processing power0.6592 TFLOPSno data
ROPs8no data
TMUs20no data

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 sizeno datamedium sized
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x8no data

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 typeDDR3LPDDR5-6400
Maximum RAM amount2 GBno data
Memory bus width64 Bitno data
Memory clock speed1000 MHzno data
Memory bandwidth16 GB/sno data
Shared memoryno 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 ConnectorsPortable Device Dependentno data

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_1)no data
Shader Model6.5 (5.1)no data
OpenGL4.6no data
OpenCL2.1 (1.2)no data
Vulkan1.2.170-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 18 April 2017 31 October 2023
Chip lithography 28 nm 5 nm

Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU has an age advantage of 6 years, and a 460% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between Radeon 520 Mobile DDR3 and Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU. We've got no test results to judge.


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

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AMD Radeon 520 Mobile DDR3
Radeon 520 Mobile DDR3
Apple M3 Pro 18-Core GPU
M3 Pro 18-Core GPU

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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2.7 7 votes

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3.1 169 votes

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Questions & comments

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