NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 OEM

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 OEM is a 40 nm Fermi 2.0 GPU built on the GF119S chip at TSMC. The listed specifications include a die with 292 million transistors and a 79 mm² area, giving a transistor density of 3.7M / mm². The card is single-slot, 145 mm (5.7 inches) long, with a TDP of 29 W and no power connectors, and it lists a 200 W suggested PSU. The release date is 2012-08-19, and production status is end-of-life. No benchmark scores are present in the data, and no nearest rivals are listed; therefore, the following assessment draws on the specified theoretical rates, memory subsystem, and feature set.

Benchmark Performance

The listed average benchmark score is 0, and the benchmarks list is empty. The percentile versus all GPUs is given as 50, but without collected results this percentile cannot be treated as a measured rank. The performance envelope is defined by an FP32 rate of 134.6 GFLOPS, a pixel rate of 2.356 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 4.712 GTexel/s. These are supported by 48 shading units, 8 texture mapping units, and 4 ROPs. The pixel rate is the most constrained of the three rates due to the low ROP count, marking pixel-bound workloads as the likely first bottleneck. The texture rate exceeds the pixel rate, and the shading unit count is high relative to the ROP count, suggesting a workload orientation toward texturing and shading rather than frame-buffer writes. The FP32 figure is modest, so heavy 32-bit floating point compute is limited. The listed rates are instantaneous maxima; sustained workloads rarely reach them, so real-world performance will be lower. The memory clock is 500 MHz with an effective data rate of 1000 Mbps; no core clock is listed, so core-clock-dependent analysis is not possible. Since no nearest-rival data is included, no percentage deltas can be computed. The 4 ROPs and 2.356 GPixel/s pixel rate together establish the frame-buffer throughput ceiling, while the 8 TMUs and 4.712 GTexel/s set the texture-sampling ceiling. The absence of measured results places the emphasis on theoretical maxima, and application fit depends on how well a workload matches these fixed resources.

Memory Subsystem

The memory configuration is 1024 MB of DDR3 on a 64-bit bus, with a peak bandwidth of 8.000 GB/s. The memory clock is 500 MHz, and the effective data rate is 1000 Mbps. A 64-bit path is narrow, and the bandwidth figure is a ceiling that must be shared by texture fetches, geometry data, and frame-buffer traffic. At high resolutions, the frame buffer must store more pixels, increasing the data that passes through the 8.000 GB/s connection. Texture sampling demands also grow as screen coverage increases, adding to the same limited path. The 1024 MB capacity puts a cap on the size of textures and buffers that can be held on the GPU; data that does not fit must cross the bus again, further consuming bandwidth. The effective data rate of 1000 Mbps is the per-pin figure; with a 64-bit interface, the total remains 8.000 GB/s. This means that any workload that saturates the bus will starve other memory requests. Color writes from the 4 ROPs, texture reads from the 8 TMUs, and vertex data crossing the PCIe 2.0 x16 link all funnel into the same bandwidth limit. At lower display resolutions, the bus bandwidth will be less likely to saturate, but the 1024 MB capacity still limits the working set for large scenes. The memory subsystem is therefore the component most likely to limit high-resolution performance.

Who Should Consider It

The GT 520 OEM is a candidate for systems with strict power and space constraints. The 29 W TDP and absence of power connectors mean it can run without a supplemental power cable, and the 200 W suggested PSU is a low requirement. The single-slot profile and 145 mm (5.7 inches) length fit compact chassis. The output set is 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.3a, and 1x VGA, allowing connection to displays across a mix of digital and analog interfaces. For users with modest rendering demands, the specification data provides a clear picture of what the card can do. The 2.356 GPixel/s pixel rate and 4.712 GTexel/s texture rate bound scene complexity. With 1024 MB of VRAM and 8.000 GB/s bandwidth, high-resolution, high-detail scenes are likely to exceed the memory subsystem's reach. Therefore, the card is suitable for systems whose workloads include desktop compositing, basic 2D/3D acceleration, and output to multiple displays at lower graphical loads. Software compatibility is supported by DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, but the hardware limits are fixed by the 4 ROPs and 48 shading units. The absence of a core clock in the data means that the card's real-world responsiveness cannot be inferred from clock speed; instead, the fixed rates (134.6 GFLOPS, 2.356 GPixel/s, 4.712 GTexel/s) are the only performance anchors. The PCIe 2.0 x16 interface provides the system connection, while the 29 W TDP defines the thermal class. In short, it addresses the role of a low-power display adapter more than a high-performance rendering device.

How It Compares

The product data lists no nearest rivals, so no rival names, scores, or percentage deltas can be reported. The only lineage context is the predecessor (GeForce 400), successor (GeForce 600), and the GeForce 500 generation to which it belongs. The GT 520 OEM uses the Fermi 2.0 architecture and the GF119S chip. The 40 nm process and TSMC foundry are the manufacturing context. The transition from GeForce 400 to GeForce 600 in the data labels this as a middle product in its line, but no performance values are attached to those labels. Without external measurements, comparison must stay within the GPU's own design. Its 8 texture mapping units outnumber its 4 ROPs, and its texture rate (4.712 GTexel/s) is higher than its pixel rate (2.356 GPixel/s). This indicates a resource balance tilted toward texture work. The FP32 rate of 134.6 GFLOPS stands as the only compute figure, providing a ceiling for shader-heavy tasks but no basis for ranking against other products. The listed memory bandwidth of 8.000 GB/s and memory capacity of 1024 MB likewise describe the GPU's own limits rather than a comparative stance. The data cannot support a positional statement beyond this.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The data lists no RT cores and no tensor cores, so hardware-accelerated ray tracing and tensor-based AI acceleration are not part of this GPU. The 48 shading units are the sole compute resource. API support is DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6; no Vulkan entry is present. The DirectX 12 designation with feature level 11_0 means the software interface is DirectX 12, but the hardware feature set is capped at 11_0. OpenGL 4.6 provides a modern API surface for applications that use it. Without RT or tensor hardware, ray tracing would have to be implemented on the shading units. The FP32 rate of 134.6 GFLOPS bounds any such compute effort, and the lack of dedicated acceleration means any ray tracing work would consume resources also needed for standard rendering. The lack of tensor cores means any neural-network or AI workload, if attempted, would run entirely on the shading units. The display output is 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.3a, and 1x VGA, which defines the possible display connections. The PCIe 2.0 x16 interface is the system interconnect. The absence of power connectors and the 29 W TDP complete the power and physical profile. Overall, the feature set is oriented toward conventional rasterization and broad API compatibility, with no evidence of ray tracing or tensor core support in the data.