In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the Intel HD Graphics 510 Desktop are significantly better than the Nvidia GeForce GT 520.

The GeForce GT 520 has a 460 MHz higher core clock speed and the same number of Texture Mapping Units as the Graphics 510. This results in the GeForce GT 520 providing 3.7 GTexel/s better texturing performance. This still holds weight but shader performance is generally more relevant, particularly since both of these GPUs support at least DirectX 10.

The GeForce GT 520 has a 460 MHz higher core clock speed than the Graphics 510 and the same number of Render Output Units. This results in the GeForce GT 520 providing 1.8 GPixel/s better pixeling performance. However, both GPUs support DirectX 9 or above, and pixeling performance is only really relevant when comparing older cards.

The Graphics 510 was released over three years more recently than the GeForce GT 520, and so the Graphics 510 is likely to have far better driver support, meaning it will be much more optimized and ultimately superior to the GeForce GT 520 when running the latest games.

The GeForce GT 520 has 1024 MB video memory, but the Graphics 510 does not have an entry, so the two GPUs cannot be reliably compared in this area.

The HD Graphics 510 Desktop has 12 Shader Processing Units and the GeForce GT 520 has 48. However, the actual shader performance of the Graphics 510 is 101 and the actual shader performance of the GeForce GT 520 is 78. The Graphics 510 having 23 better shader performance and an altogether better performance when taking into account other relevant data means that the Graphics 510 delivers a slightly smoother and more efficient experience when processing graphical data than the GeForce GT 520.

The Graphics 510 transistor size technology is 26 nm (nanometers) smaller than the GeForce GT 520. This means that the Graphics 510 is expected to run slightly cooler and achieve higher clock frequencies than the GeForce GT 520.

The HD Graphics 510 Desktop requires 47 Watts to run and the GeForce GT 520 requires 29 Watts. We would recommend a PSU with at least 300 Watts for the Graphics 510 and a PSU with at least 300 Watts for the GeForce GT 520. The Graphics 510 requires 18 Watts more than the GeForce GT 520 to run. The difference is not significant enough for the Graphics 510 to have a noticeably larger impact on your yearly electricity bills than the GeForce GT 520.