Radeon 520 vs Radeon R9 M270X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon 520 and Radeon R9 M270X, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the Radeon 520 stacks up against Radeon R9 M270X, check out specs charts below.
Radeon R9 M270X

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 R9 M270X
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x8 PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None
Memory type DDR3, GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA No outputs
  Check Price
  • Radeon 520 is connected by PCIe 3.0 x8, and Radeon R9 M270X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 M270X has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon 520.
  • Radeon 520 is used in Laptops, and Radeon R9 M270X - in Desktops.
  • Radeon 520 and Radeon R9 M270X are build with GCN 1.0 architecture.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon 520 is 305 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 M270X.
  • Radeon 520 and Radeon R9 M270X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon 520 is 1125 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 M270X.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 0−1 6−7
ultra / 1080p 4−5
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 1−2 16−18
medium / 1080p 0−1 8−9
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 M270X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 1600% more, than Radeon 520.

Full Specs

  Radeon 520 Radeon R9 M270X
Architecture GCN 1.0 GCN 1.0
Code name Oland Venus
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 21 March 2017 21 March 2014
Pipelines 320 640
Core clock speed 1030 MHz 725 MHz
Boost Clock 775 MHz
Transistor count 1,040 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 20.60 31.00
Floating-point performance 659.2 gflops 1,536 gflops
Memory bus width 64 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 2250 MHz 1125 MHz
Memory bandwidth 16 GB/s 72 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12.0
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.4
OpenCL 1.2 Not Listed
Vulkan +
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0 x16
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
DualGraphics +
ZeroCore +
Switchable graphics +
Mantle +
Compute units 10
  Check Price