Radeon 520: FPS benchmarks and laptop guide
Radeon 520 — 16 games benchmarked at 1080p, 3 models in the catalog.
Radeon 520 — 16 games benchmarked at 1080p , 3 laptop models in the used-laptop catalog . This guide covers what the chip delivers in games, where it sits among mobile GPUs in 2026, and which laptops carry it.
The Radeon 520 is AMD's 2017 entry-level discrete GPU — first-generation GCN architecture sold new half a decade after its design debut. This guide covers its 16 benchmarked games at 1080p on the high preset and the 3 catalog models that carry it.
Where the Radeon 520 sits in 2026
A catalog score of 7.9 ranks it 257th of 341 — the bottom quarter. The neighbors: the RX Vega M GL (9.5), Quadro 4000M (8.6) and UHD 630 (8.3) above; the Iris Pro 5200 (7.7), MX110 (7.4) and Quadro K3100M (7.3) below. The company — 2011-2013 professional cards and Intel iGPUs — states the position plainly: this was entry-level silicon in 2017 and has not aged upward.
What the chip brings
GCN 1.0 architecture on 28nm: 320 stream processors, 2GB of GDDR5 on a 64-bit bus with 36GB/s of bandwidth, a 50W envelope and 0.66 teraflops. Public benchmarks: PassMark 787, Time Spy 397, Fire Strike 1319, compute at 4339 (Vulkan) and 5248 (OpenCL). Its role was adding a marketing-friendly «discrete GPU» line to budget office machines — at the lowest possible cost.
FPS in games at 1080p
At the high preset: Valorant at 35, DOTA 2 at 19, Forza Horizon 4 and The Witcher 3 at 10, Fortnite at 8, Battlefield 5 at 5, Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 5 and Forza Horizon 5 at 4, Counter-Strike 2 at 3, the Resident Evil 4 remake at 1 fps. Only the capped legacy titles (240/140) flatter the table. Light esports at 720p is the entire usable envelope.
Laptops that carry it
Three listings: Dell Vostro 3583 (2018) at $281, Vostro 15 3578 (2017) at $309 and an Inspiron 3780 without a listed price. Fleet medians: best-CPU 36.4, gaming index 23, energy efficiency 51.9 — budget business platforms with the graphics median equal to this chip. These are office machines whose GPU line existed for the spec sheet, not for gaming.
Bottom line
The Radeon 520 is a caution-tale chip: «discrete» on the sticker, weaker than modern integrated graphics in practice. Its hosts are cheap, serviceable office laptops — reasonable at the right price for productivity use. For gaming expectations, set them by the table above: Valorant on low, DOTA 2 on low, and realistically nothing else.
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Radeon 520 at a glance
🤔 How to choose
Universal advice for any use case.
- Reliability vs price: reliability (median 50) ↔ price (median 385.1).
- Weight vs CPU: mobility (median 48) ↔ overall performance (median 49.8).
- Upgradeability vs battery: upgradability (median 50) ↔ battery life (median 2.8).
🎮 Radeon 520 — game FPS at 1080p
Average FPS per game, high quality preset.
| Game | FPS (1080p) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Overwatch | 240 | ✓ Comfortable |
| PUBG: Battlegrounds | 140 | ✓ Comfortable |
| Valorant | 35 | ⚠ Playable |
| Dota 2 | 19 | ✗ Low |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 10 | ✗ Low |
| Fortnite | 8 | ✗ Low |
| Battlefield 5 | 5 | ✗ Low |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 4 | ✗ Low |
| Far Cry 5 | 4 | ✗ Low |
| Forza Horizon 5 | 4 | ✗ Low |
| Metro Exodus | 3 | ✗ Low |
| Resident Evil 4 Remake | 1 | ✗ Low |
| CS:GO | 240 | ✓ Comfortable |
| GTA V | 140 | ✓ Comfortable |
| The Witcher 3 | 10 | ✗ Low |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 3 | ✗ Low |
Laptops with the Radeon 520
3 matched models — newest first. Names link to the full review.
| Model | Year | Class | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vostro 3583 | 2018 | Business | $281 |
| Vostro 15 3578 | 2017 | Business | $309 |
| Dell Inspiron 3780 | — | Laptop | — |
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