The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M is an entry level dedicated laptop graphics card presented in 2010. It is based on the GF119 or GF108 core, which are both related to the Fermi architecture. Depending on the version, it features a 64 Bit memory bus and higher clock rates (GF119 version) or a 128 Bit memory bus and slower clock rates. Theoretically, the card also supports fast GDDR5 memory, but due to cost limitations, DDR3 will be used by the laptop manufacturers.
Compared to the GT 420M, the 520M offers only 48 instead of 96 shader cores.
GF108 - core 600/1200 MHz, 128 Bit 900 MHz DDR3
GF119 - core 740/1480 MHz, 64 Bit 800 MHz DDR3
Architecture
The GF119 offers 48 ALUs, 8 texture units and a 64 Bit memory interface for DDR3-VRAM. Therefore, it is similar to a half GF108 (GeForce GT 540M) but already manufactured with optimized transistors. As a difference the amount of raster-operation-processors (ROP) stayed the same counting 4. The GF119 is the smalles chip of the Fermi generation and is used for low end laptops.
Performance
As an entry level card, the GT 520M has to compete against the Intel HD Graphics 3000 in the current Sandy Bridge processors. In our tests, the card was only slightly faster, but the better driver support did make a difference. However, demanding games like Battlefield 3 or The Witcher 2 are not playable. Other modern games only run in low details, and therefore gamers wont be pleased with the performance. Low demanding games like Fifa 12, however, are playable with high detail settings.
Features
As the other 500M series chips, the 520M supports Bitstream HD Audio (Blu-Ray) output via HDMI. That means the card is able to transfer Dolby True HD and DTS-HD bitstream-wise without quality loss to a HiFi receiver.
The GT520M offers the PureVideo HD technology for video decoding. The included Video Processor 4 (VP4) in the GF108 chip supports feature set C and therefore the GPU is able to fully decode MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2 (MPEG-4 ASP - e.g., DivX or Xvid), VC-1/WMV9, and H.264 (VLD, IDCT, Motion Compensation, and Deblocking). The newer GF119 supports already the next generation VP5 (feature set D) with faster decodes, HD-to SD transcodes, lower power decodes and 4K x 4k resolution H.264 decode support.
Furthermore, the GPU is able to decode two 1080p streams simultaneously (e.g. for Blu-Ray Picture-in-Picture).
Through CUDA, OpenCL, and DirectCompute 2.1 support, the GeForce GT 520M can be of help in general calculations. For example, the stream processor can considerably faster encode videos than a fast CPU can. Furthermore, physics calculations can be theoretically done by the GPU using PhysX (e.g. supported by Mafia 2 or Metro 2033) but the performance wont be sufficient for this.
The power consumption of approximately 17 Watt (including board and memory) allows the usage of the 520M in small laptops. Furthermore, Optimus is supported (if implemented by the manufacturer) for automatic switching to the processor graphics card to save power.
The NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M is a relatively fast mid-range laptop graphics card and the successor to the GeForce GT 425M. It is based on the GF108 core as part of the Fermi architecture. Therefore, it supports DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0. Compared to the GT 425M, core clock rates of the GT 525M have been increased by about 7 percent.
GF108 architecture
The GF108 core of the GT 525M is related to the GF100 core found in the GeFore GTX 480M and offers 96 shaders and a 128 Bit memory bus for DDR3 VRAM. Except for the memory controllers, the GF108 can essentially be considered a halved GF106. Therefore, the architecture is not directly comparable to the old GT215 (e.g., GeForce GTS 350M) or GT216 (e.g., GeForce GT 330M) cores.
Unlike the GF100, the smaller GF104, GF106, and GF108 cores were not only shortened, but also considerably modified. In contrast to the GF100, which was designed for professional applications, these latter chips target the consumer market. They feature more shaders (3x16 instead of 2x16), more texture units (8 instead of 4) and more SFUs per streaming multi-processor (SM). As there are still only 2 warp schedulers (versus 3 shader groups), Nvidia now uses superscalar execution in order to utilize the higher amount of shaders per SM more efficiently. In theory, the performance per core should be greatly improved over previous generations.
In worst case scenarios, the performance of the Fermi architecture can also be worse than expected. The ECC memory protection, which is important for professional applications, was completely omitted and the FP64 hardware was shortened (only 1/3 of the shader are FP64-capable and thereby only 1/12 of the FP32’s performance). Because of these cutbacks, the size of the SM grew only by 25% despite the higher number of shaders and larger warp schedulers with superscalar dispatch capabilities.
Due to the different shader architectures and the higher clock rate of the shader domain, the core count of Nvidia Fermi cards can not be directly compared to AMD cores of the Radeon 5000 series (e.g. HD 5650).
Detailed information on the GF104 architecture (and by extension the GF106 and GF108) can be found in the desktop GTX 460 article by Anandtech.
Performance
The gaming performance of the GT 525M is similar to the GT 425M as the core clock rate differs only by 7%. Therefore, the gaming performance of the GT 525M is sufficient for medium detail settings in modern games like Battlefield Bad Company 2. Less demanding games should run in high detail settings. The best resolution to choose is 720p or lower due to the limited performance. Benchmarks and comparison charts on the 3D performance can be found below or on The dedicated GT 425M benchmarks page is a great source as well due to the similarity between both GPUs.
Features
A novelty of the GF104/106/108 chips is the support for Bitstream HD Audio (Blu-Ray) output via HDMI. Similar to the Radeon HD 5730, the GT 525M can transfer Dolby True HD and DTS-HD bitstream without quality loss to a HiFi receiver.
The GT525M offers the PureVideo HD technology for video decoding. The included Video Processor 4 (VP4) supports feature set C and allows the GPU to fully decode MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2 (MPEG-4 ASP - e.g., DivX or Xvid), VC-1/WMV9, and H.264 (VLD, IDCT, Motion Compensation, and Deblocking).
Furthermore, the GPU is able to decode two 1080p streams simultaneously (e.g. for Blu-Ray Picture-in-Picture).
Through CUDA, OpenCL and DirectCompute 2.1 support, the GeForce GT 525M can be of help in general calculations. For example, the stream processor can encode videos considerably faster than can a modern CPU. Furthermore, physics calculations can be done by the GPU using PhysX (e.g., supported by Mafia 2 or Metro 2033).
According to Nvidia, the 525M includes support for 3D Vision. This enables the laptop to send 3D content (3D games, 3D Web Streaming, 3D photos, 3D Blu-Rays) to a built-in 3D-enabled screen or an external 3D TV if supported by the laptop manufacturer. However, this feature is automatically disabled if the laptop includes Optimus.
The power consumption of the GeForce GT 525M should be similar to the GT 425M and is therefore suited for 15” laptops. Furthermore, the 500M series supports Optimus to automatically switch between the integrated graphics card from Intel and the Nvidia GPU. The implementation of the Nvidia power-saving feature is completely dependent on the laptop manufacturer.
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M → 100%n=22
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M → 132%n=22
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card - Average benchmark values for this graphics card * Smaller numbers mean a higher performance 1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
Game Benchmarks
The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.
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- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
