Radeon 520 vs Radeon HD 7850

In this comparison between Radeon 520 and Radeon HD 7850 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 7850 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 7850
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 225 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x8 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None 1x 6-pin
Memory type DDR3, GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 7850 has 350% more power consumption, than Radeon 520.
  • Radeon 520 is connected by PCIe 3.0 x8, and Radeon HD 7850 uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon 520 and Radeon HD 7850 have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Radeon 520 is used in Laptops, and Radeon HD 7850 - in Desktops.
  • Radeon 520 and Radeon HD 7850 are build with GCN 1.0 architecture.
  • Radeon 520 and Radeon HD 7850 are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon 520 is 1050 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7850.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 0−1 18−20
ultra / 1080p 10−12
QHD / 1440p 0−1 5−6
4K / 2160p 4−5
low / 720p 1−2 35−40
medium / 1080p 0−1 24−27
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7850 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 3600% more, than Radeon 520.

Full Specs

  Radeon 520 Radeon HD 7850
Architecture GCN 1.0 GCN 1.0
Code name Oland Pitcairn
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 21 March 2017 5 March 2012
Pipelines 320 1024
Core clock speed 1030 MHz
Boost Clock 1000 MHz
Transistor count 1,040 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 20.60 55.04
Floating-point performance 659.2 gflops 1,761 gflops
Length 210 mm
Memory bus width 64 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 2250 MHz 1200 MHz
Memory bandwidth 16 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12.0
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan +
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 2.1 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 249 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 12.5 Mh/s
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