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nVidia GT 520 or AMD 3850 graphics?

OOZMAN

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Just a quick one; Building a rig for the girlfriend, I have the GT 520 and of course the onboard graphics of the apu. Which should I use? I assume the 520, but I'm not too knowledgeable on these low end graphics. :)

Thanks.

EDIT: A8-3850 is what I mean, dunno how to change the title. :)
 
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According to techPowerUp's A8-3850 GPU Performance Analysis, it looks like the A8 bests the GT 520 by quite a bit.

 
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HERE you have the review for your APU vs GT520 !!!
 

OOZMAN

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Wow thanks guys, I'll now swap it out, and I'll have a spare gpu lying around should I need it.
 

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Wow, I'd forgotten just how weak the GT 520 is, lol. Seems a bit surprising though when you consider how powerful the top-end GTX 580 is.

In fact, I had wanted to do an experiment that never got off the ground. With any graphics card, its performance will tank if it runs out of graphics memory (big resolution screen mode, detailed textures, lots of AA/AF tec). The more it hits that buffer, the more it tanks. I wanted to buy a GT 520 2GB and compare it with my GTX 580 1.5GB and see if maxing the memory on the 580 would actually reduce the performance to below that of the 520. I think it would be interesting to see the results.
 
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AMD wins hands down in this category by far. I can't wait for Trinity though.
 

OOZMAN

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Memory 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 1866mhz 9-9-9-24
Video Card(s) HIS HD6950 2GB, 930/1500mhz stable. CFX with 6970 eventually
Storage Intel 320 series 120GB SSD. 2.7TB generic HDD storage.
Display(s) 32" Sony Bravia LCD TV 1920x1080. Yeah baby!
Case Blue Raidmax Raptor.
Audio Device(s) Phonic 302+ 1394 interface, + 2x Behringer 9" 225W studio monitors. Cant buy better for under $600!
Power Supply Corsair TX750W
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Benchmark Scores 3DMark Vantage- P22288 :|: Furmark 720 preset- 3644 frames, 1080 preset- 2347 :|: Skyrims max everyt
So after a while of gaming, I can confirm the apu is better, but it seems not by as much as those graphs seem to show. There is a difference, but unless you have pretty good eyes or are using fraps, it's hard to tell. Oh well, it'll be good enough for the gf. :laugh:
 
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I wanted to buy a GT 520 2GB and compare it with my GTX 580 1.5GB and see if maxing the memory on the 580 would actually reduce the performance to below that of the 520. I think it would be interesting to see the results.

No the GTX580 will not go below a GTS 520. The video memory is not the measuring stick for performance, all that will happen is the frame rate will drop slightly and it'll be forced to borrow from the main memory (RAM).
 
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