Radeon 520 vs Radeon HD 5970

In this comparison between Radeon 520 and Radeon HD 5970 you will find out which graphics card performs better in today's games. Bear in mind that third-party versions may have more efficient cooling and higher clock speeds. This will increase cards' performance, though not by much. In addition to raw power you should also take into account the dimensions. Thicker models simply will not fit into a small mini-ITX case. The resolution of your monitor also affects the choice, since 4K gameplay requires a more powerful GPU. And don't overspend on the graphics card. Other parts of your build may also need to be upgraded, save some money for the CPU or power supply. For some people Radeon 520 will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 5970 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon 520 is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon 520 is only used in laptop graphics. It has lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with Radeon 520 here:

Main Specs

  Radeon 520 Radeon HD 5970
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 294 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x8 PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type DDR3, GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 1 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA 2x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 5970 has 488% more power consumption, than Radeon 520.
  • Radeon 520 is connected by PCIe 3.0 x8, and Radeon HD 5970 uses PCIe 2.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon 520 has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 5970.
  • Radeon 520 is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 5970 - in Desktops.
  • Radeon 520 is build with GCN 1.0 architecture, and Radeon HD 5970 - with TeraScale 2.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon 520 is 305 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 5970.
  • Radeon 520 is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 5970 - by 40 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 5970 is 1750 MHz higher, than Radeon 520.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 0−1 10−12
ultra / 1080p 6−7
QHD / 1440p 0−1 1−2
low / 720p 1−2 24−27
medium / 1080p 0−1 14−16
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 5970 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 2400% more, than Radeon 520.

Full Specs

  Radeon 520 Radeon HD 5970
Architecture GCN 1.0 TeraScale 2
Code name Oland Hemlock
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 21 March 2017 18 November 2009
Pipelines 320 1600
Core clock speed 1030 MHz 725 MHz
Transistor count 1,040 million 2,154 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 40 nm
Texture fill rate 20.60 58.00
Floating-point performance 659.2 gflops 2x 2,320.0 gflops
Length 305 mm
Memory bus width 64 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 2250 MHz 4000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 16 GB/s 128.0 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12.0 11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model 5.0 5.0
OpenGL 4.6 4.4
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan + N/A
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