Quadro P520: FPS benchmarks and laptop guide
Quadro P520 — 25 games benchmarked at 1080p, 3 models in the catalog.
Quadro P520 — 25 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 NVIDIA Quadro P520 is the thinnest of the Pascal-era mobile workstation cards — a 384-core, 18W professional GPU built for 14-inch work laptops where battery life mattered more than viewports. This guide covers its 25 benchmarked games at 1080p (10 with medium-preset data) and the three catalog machines that carry it.
Where the Quadro P520 sits in 2026
A catalog score of 20.1 ranks it 206th of 341 — the lower middle. The neighborhood is remarkably diverse: Apple's M3 (20.4), M1 Pro (20.3) and M4 GPU740 (20.3) directly above, the GeForce GTX 950M (20.1) at the same score, and the Quadro M2000M (19.9) plus Quadro T2000 Laptop (19.3) below. A 2019 entry professional card scoring level with a five-years-newer laptop iGPU and a 2015 consumer mid-tier is the honest placement.
What the chip brings
Pascal architecture, GP108 codename, 14nm process: 384 CUDA cores boosting to 1493MHz, 2GB of GDDR5 on a narrow 64-bit bus (48GB/s), an 18W envelope and 1.15 teraflops — with CUDA flagged, which was the professional draw. Public benchmarks: PassMark 2016, Time Spy 1011, Fire Strike 3218, GeekBench Vulkan 7283 and OpenCL 7966. Every number describes a card optimized for efficiency class, not performance.
FPS in games at 1080p
The playable block at the high preset is strictly light titles: DOTA 2 and Valorant at 60 fps, Fortnite 27, Counter-Strike 2 21, Forza Horizon 4 and Battlefield 5 in the low 20s alongside Rise of the Tomb Raider, Darksiders III at 19 (23 on medium) and The Witcher 3 at 19 — the capped quartet naturally at its ceilings. Below that the modern block fades: Forza Horizon 5 14, Cyberpunk 2077 10, Resident Evil 4 remake 8, Metro Exodus 6 on high (7 on medium). This is a low-settings esports card with occasional medium ambitions.
Laptops that carry it
Three listings match, and they are exactly the machines this chip was made for: the Lenovo ThinkPad P15s Gen 1 (2021) at $451, the Dell Precision 3550 (2020) at $345 and the ThinkPad P43s (2018) at $256 — thin 14/15-inch mobile workstations. The fleet medians describe them faithfully: best-GPU 20.1 pinned to the chip, gaming index 18, energy efficiency 69.8 — office-first platforms with a professional badge on modest graphics.
Bottom line
The P520 is a battery-life card: it gave thin workstations CUDA support, certified drivers and multi-monitor stability without asking for watts or cooling. In 2026 its game table is a low-settings esports footnote — Valorant and DOTA at 60, everything modern well below. As a reason to buy, it isn't one; as the graphics inside a $256-451 well-built ThinkPad or Precision for work use, it does precisely the quiet job it was designed for. Gamers should pass; workstation shoppers get a fair machine with modest 3D on the side.
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Quadro P520 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).
🎮 Quadro P520 — game FPS at 1080p
Average FPS per game, medium and high quality presets.
| Game | Medium (1080p) | High (1080p) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overwatch | — | 240 | ✓ Comfortable |
| PUBG: Battlegrounds | — | 140 | ✓ Comfortable |
| Dota 2 | — | 60 | ✓ Comfortable |
| Valorant | — | 60 | ✓ Comfortable |
| Fortnite | — | 27 | ✗ Low |
| Forza Horizon 4 | — | 21 | ✗ Low |
| Battlefield 5 | — | 20 | ✗ Low |
| Far Cry 5 | 20 | 20 | ✗ Low |
| Rise of the Tomb Raider | — | 20 | ✗ Low |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | — | 19 | ✗ Low |
| Anno 1800 | 25 | 15 | ✗ Low |
| Forza Horizon 5 | — | 14 | ✗ Low |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 13 | — | ✗ Low |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | — | 10 | ✗ Low |
| Resident Evil 4 Remake | — | 8 | ✗ Low |
| Control | 12 | 6 | ✗ Low |
| Metro Exodus | 7 | 6 | ✗ Low |
| Borderlands 3 | 10 | 5 | ✗ Low |
| CS:GO | — | 240 | ✓ Comfortable |
| GTA V | — | 140 | ✓ Comfortable |
| Counter-Strike 2 | — | 21 | ✗ Low |
| Darksiders III | 23 | 19 | ✗ Low |
| The Witcher 3 | — | 19 | ✗ Low |
| F1 2019 | 16 | 14 | ✗ Low |
Laptops with the Quadro P520
3 matched models — newest first. Names link to the full review.
| Model | Year | Class | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo ThinkPad P15s Gen 1 | 2021 | Workstation | $451 |
| Precision 3550 | 2020 | Workstation | $345 |
| ThinkPad P43s | 2018 | Workstation | $256 |
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