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NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M

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.

GeForce GT 500M Series

GeForce GT 555M compare 144 @ 0.53 - 0.75 GHz128, 192 Bit @ 785-900 MHz
GeForce GT 550M compare 96 @ 0.74 GHz128 Bit @ 900 MHz
GeForce GT 540M compare 96 @ 0.67 GHz128 Bit @ 900 MHz
GeForce GT 525M 96 @ 0.6 GHz128 Bit @ 900 MHz
GeForce GT 520MX compare 48 @ 0.9 GHz64 Bit @ 900 MHz
GeForce GT 520M compare 48 @ 0.74 GHz64 / 128 Bit @ 800 / 900 MHz
CodenameN12P-GE
ArchitectureFermi
Pipelines96 - unified
Core Speed600 MHz
Shader Speed1200 MHz
Memory Speed900 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5, DDR3
Max. Amount of Memory1536 MB
Shared Memoryno
APIDirectX 11, Shader 5.0
Power Consumption25 Watt
technology40 nm
Notebook Sizemedium sized
Date of Announcement06.01.2011

Benchmarks

3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Score
min: 737     avg: 835     median: 901 (1%)     max: 937 Points
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance GPU
min: 652     avg: 743     median: 799 (1%)     max: 829 Points
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. total
min: 3238     avg: 3750     median: 3839.5 (1%)     max: 4072 Points
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX
min: 2373     avg: 2927     median: 3230 (2%)     max: 3258 Points
3DMark 03 - 3DMark 03 - Standard
min: 14843     avg: 17618     median: 19070 (10%)     max: 19146 Points
3DMark 05 - 3DMark 05 - Standard
min: 11799     avg: 13307     median: 13768 (15%)     max: 14509 Points
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06
min: 6069     avg: 6902     median: 7058.5 (9%)     max: 7588 Points
3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x768 +
3DMark 06
min: 6792     avg: 7675     median: 7675 (10%)     max: 8558 Points
SPECviewperf 11
specvp11 snx-01 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 snx-01
min: 1.74     avg: 2.3     median: 2.4 (1%)     max: 2.78 fps
specvp11 tcvis-02 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 tcvis-02
min: 0.69     avg: 0.7     median: 0.7 (0%)     max: 0.84 fps
specvp11 sw-02 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 sw-02
min: 4.9     avg: 5.7     median: 5.8 (4%)     max: 6.38 fps
specvp11 proe-05 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 proe-05
min: 0.95     avg: 1     median: 1 (1%)     max: 1.02 fps
specvp11 maya-03 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 maya-03
min: 2.07     avg: 4.1     median: 3 (2%)     max: 7.37 fps
specvp11 lightwave-01 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 lightwave-01
min: 9.07     avg: 9.3     median: 9.2 (10%)     max: 9.65 fps
specvp11 ensight-04 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 ensight-04
min: 7.18     avg: 8.2     median: 8.5 (4%)     max: 8.99 fps
specvp11 catia-03 +
SPECviewperf 11 - specvp11 catia-03
min: 2.89     avg: 3.5     median: 3.3 (2%)     max: 4.32 fps
Windows 7 Experience Index - Win7 Graphics
min: 4.7     avg: 5.7     median: 5.7 (72%)     max: 6.6 Points
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit)
min: 3409     avg: 4441     median: 4531 (3%)     max: 5451 points
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit
min: 17.81     avg: 20.5     median: 22.4 (8%)     max: 22.74 fps
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

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.

Dirt 3

Dirt 3

2011
low 800x600
97  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
41  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
25  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Crysis 2

Crysis 2

2011
low 800x600
51  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
34.5  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
25.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
8.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 800x600
53 77.7 ~ 65 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
med. 1024x768
36 48 54.6 56.4 ~ 49 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
high 1360x768
32 40.8 44.9 45.9 ~ 41 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
ultra 1920x1080
20.5 26.4 ~ 23 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Fifa 11

Fifa 11

2010
low 800x600
303.9 327.1 367.8 413.8 ~ 353 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
med. 1024x768
126.8 155.9 173.7 182.8 ~ 160 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
high 1360x768
83.7 105.3 111.7 114.7 ~ 104 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
ultra 1920x1080
62.8 63 ~ 63 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Mafia 2

Mafia 2

2010
low 800x600
59.8  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
36.5 39.8 40.1 ~ 39 fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
28.8 31 31.4 ~ 30 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
18.6 18.8 ~ 19 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 1024x768
161 175.3 190.9 200.3 ~ 182 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
med. 1360x768
31 33.9 41.6 42 47.9 59.2 ~ 43 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
high 1360x768
25 26 29.7 30.7 34.5 41.4 ~ 31 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
ultra 1920x1080
16 17.5 ~ 17 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
low 800x600
med. 1360x768
high 1600x900
ultra 1920x1080
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1024x768
42 43 50.5 ~ 45 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
med. 1366x768
27 32.2 37.7 40 40.1 ~ 35 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
high 1366x768
19 23.4 27.4 29 29.4 ~ 26 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
ultra 1920x1080
13.9 14.6 ~ 14 fps    + Compare + 📈 Graph
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 800x600
111.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
42.6  fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
36.7  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
22.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Risen

Risen

2009
low 800x600
68 70 82.4 ~ 73 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
26.7 29.4 36.4 37.7 ~ 33 fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
16.9 20 24.1 25.6 ~ 22 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
15.3 16.5 ~ 16 fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5

2009
low 800x600
101.5  fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
45.8  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Need for Speed Shift

Need for Speed Shift

2009
med. 1024x768
33.3 37.6 48.5 ~ 40 fps    + Compare
high 1366x768
25.2 27 36 ~ 29 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21.5  fps    + Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Colin McRae: DIRT 2

Colin McRae: DIRT 2

2009
low 800x600
52.1 67.6 93.4 ~ 71 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
44.9 58 68.4 ~ 57 fps    + Compare
high 1360x768
28.6 34.8 35 ~ 33 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
14.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Anno 1404

Anno 1404

2009
low 1024x768
126.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1280x1024
23.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
F.E.A.R. 2

F.E.A.R. 2

2009
low 800x600
154.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
66.5  fps    + Compare
high 1280x1024
44.5  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
21.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Racedriver: GRID

Racedriver: GRID

2008
low 800x600
99.8  fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
48.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare

2007
low 800x600
200 223.1 ~ 212 fps    + Compare
med. 1024x768
80.6 95.6 ~ 88 fps    + Compare
high 1280x1024
55.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Call of Juarez Benchmark

Call of Juarez Benchmark

2006
high 1024x768
25.5 31.2 ~ 28 fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
lowmed.highultraQHD4K
Dirt 3974125
Crysis 25134.525.48.5
Call of Duty: Black Ops65494123
Fifa 1135316010463
Mafia 259.8393019
StarCraft 2182433117
Metro 203341.124.613.14.7
Battlefield: Bad Company 245352614
CoD Modern Warfare 2111.742.636.722.8
Risen73332216
Resident Evil 5101.545.8
Need for Speed Shift402921.5
Colin McRae: DIRT 271573314.7
Anno 1404126.223.9
F.E.A.R. 2154.266.544.521.9
Racedriver: GRID99.848.1
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare2128855.9
Call of Juarez Benchmark28
< 30 fps
< 60 fps
< 120 fps
≥ 120 fps

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5
1
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8
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Notebook reviews with NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M graphics card

 

Review Toshiba Satellite L750-16W Notebook

Plain average. Toshiba brings a 15.6 inch notebook for €700 onto the market called Satellite L750. The multimedia notebook is to especially attract customers wi...
Intel Core i5-2430M | NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M | 15.60" | 2.2 kg
 

Review Toshiba Satellite L775-125 Notebook

An average model. Toshiba adds a 17 inch desktop replacement with the latest Sandy Bridge hardware to the market with the Satellite L775-125. Moreover, there is...
Intel Core i5-2410M | NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M | 17.30" | 2.8 kg
 

Review Fujitsu Lifebook AH531 Notebook

Basic bundle. Typewriter, calculator, gaming machine, movie entertainment system, portable companion and survival artist. The 15 incher has something of everyth...
Intel Core i3-2310M | NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M | 15.60" | 2.6 kg
 

Review Fujitsu Lifebook NH751 Notebook

Memory giant. 1500 gigabyte in a notebook. It may sound like megalomania but it is a surprisingly good desktop replacement with a quad core, contrast rich Full ...
Intel Core i7-2630QM | NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M | 17.30" | 3.7 kg
 

Review Toshiba Satellite Pro L770-116 Notebook

Pragmatic. An office machine or a chunk of plastic? The Satellite Pro fuses consumer graphics with Core i5 power and an 8 GB RAM. A matt, manageable WXGA++ scre...
Intel Core i5-2410M | NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M | 17.30" | 2.8 kg

Dell XPS 15z: Intel Core i7-2620M, 15.60", 2.5 kg
  Review » Review Dell XPS 15z Notebook

  Review » Preview: Dell XPS 15z Notebook in test

Dell Inspiron 17R (N7110): Intel Core i5-2410M, 17.30", 3.3 kg
  Review » Review Dell Inspiron 17R (N7110) Notebook

Fujitsu Lifebook AH531-MF042DE: Intel Core i5-2410M, 15.60", 2.5 kg
  External Review » Fujitsu Lifebook AH531-MF042DE

Dell Inspiron N5110-B63F45: Intel Core i7-2630QM, 15.60", 2.4 kg
  External Review » Dell Inspiron N5110-B63F45

Toshiba Satellite L750-16W: Intel Core i5-2430M, 15.60", 2.2 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite L750-16W

Toshiba Satellite L775-166: Intel Core i5-2430M, 17.30", 2.9 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite L775-166

Toshiba Satellite L750-16V: Intel Core i7-2670QM, 15.60", 2.5 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite L750-16V

Toshiba Satellite L755-19X: Intel Core i5-2410M, 15.60", 2.5 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite L755-19X

Lenovo IdeaPad Z470: Intel Core i5-2410M, 14.00", 2.2 kg
  External Review » Lenovo IdeaPad Z470

Toshiba Satellite L755-144: Intel Core i5-2410M, 15.60", 2.5 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite L755-144

Toshiba Satellite L750-12N: Intel Core i5-2410M, 15.60", 3 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite L750-12N

Samsung QX411-W01: Intel Core i5-2410M, 14.00", 2.3 kg
  External Review » Samsung QX411-W01

Toshiba Satellite L775-127: Intel Core i5-2410M, 17.30", 2.9 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite L775-127

Toshiba Satellite L775-125: Intel Core i5-2410M, 17.30", 2.8 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite L775-125

Lenovo Ideapad V570-M57E2GE: Intel Core i5-2540M, 15.60", 2.4 kg
  External Review » Lenovo Ideapad V570-M57E2GE

Fujitsu Lifebook AH531: Intel Core i3-2310M, 15.60", 2.6 kg
  External Review » Fujitsu Lifebook AH531

Fujitsu Lifebook NH751: Intel Core i7-2630QM, 17.30", 3.7 kg
  External Review » Fujitsu Lifebook NH751

Toshiba Satellite Pro L770-116: Intel Core i5-2410M, 17.30", 2.8 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite Pro L770-116

Toshiba Satellite L750-12R: Intel Core i5-2410M, 15.60", 2.6 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite L750-12R

Dell XPS 15z: Intel Core i7-2620M, 15.60", 2.5 kg
  External Review » Dell XPS 15z

Dell Vostro 3750: Intel Core i5-2410M, 17.30", 3 kg
  External Review » Dell Vostro 3750

Samsung RC512-S02: Intel Core i7-2630QM, 15.60", 2.4 kg
  External Review » Samsung RC512-S02

Toshiba Satellite M645-S4118X: Intel Core i5-2410M, 14.00", 2.4 kg
  External Review » Toshiba Satellite M645-S4118X

Dell Inspiron 17R (N7110): Intel Core i5-2410M, 17.30", 3.3 kg
  External Review » Dell Inspiron 17R (N7110)

Dell Inspiron 17R-N7110: Intel Core i5-2410M, 17.30", 3.3 kg
  External Review » Dell Inspiron 17R-N7110

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» Comparison of GPUs
Detailed list of all laptop GPUs sorted by class and performance.

» Benchmark List
Sort and restrict laptop GPUs based on performance in synthetic benchmarks.

» Notebook Gaming List
Playable games for each graphics card and their average FPS results.

Class 0

Arc A380

Class 1

Class 2

Radeon PRO W6600M *

Class 3

UHD Graphics 32EUs
UHD Graphics 750

Class 4

Class 5

* Approximate position of the graphics adapter