GeForce 8600M GT SLI vs Radeon 520

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking879not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency2.84no data
ArchitectureGCN 1.0 (2011−2020)G8x (2007)
GPU code nameBanksNB8P-GS
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date18 April 2017 (7 years ago)23 October 2007 (17 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 cores32064
Core clock speed1030 MHz475 MHz
Number of transistors690 million598 Million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm80 nm
Power consumption (TDP)50 Watt20 Watt
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 datalarge
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x8no data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno 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 typeGDDR5GDDR3, GDDR2
Maximum RAM amount2 GB1 GB
Memory bus width64 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed1125 MHz700 MHz
Memory bandwidth36 GB/sno data
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 ConnectorsNo outputsno data

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_1)10
Shader Model5.1no data
OpenGL4.6no data
OpenCL1.2no data
Vulkan1.2.131-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 18 April 2017 23 October 2007
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 1 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 80 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 20 Watt

Radeon 520 has an age advantage of 9 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 185.7% more advanced lithography process.

8600M GT SLI, on the other hand, has 150% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon 520 and GeForce 8600M GT SLI. 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
Radeon 520
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT SLI
GeForce 8600M GT SLI

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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Questions & comments

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