Galaxy GT 520 MDT Review

Testing:

Testing of the Galaxy GT 520 with Multi Display Technology will be somewhat different than our usual video card testing, as this card is not really going to appeal to the gamer but more toward the content creator or user that needs more than one or two screens.

The system specifications will remain the same throughout the testing. No adjustment will be made to the respective control panels during the testing with the exception of the 3DMark Vantage testing where PhysX will be disabled in the NVIDIA control panel if applicable. I will test the card at stock speeds and then overclocked in order to see the effects of any increases in clock speed. The drivers used are the 290.53 for NVIDIA-based cards.

• Processor: Core i7 2600K @ 4.4 GHz 100 x 44
• CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series H100
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68AP-D3
• Memory: Mushkin 991996 Redline PC3-17000 9-11-10-28 8 GB
• Video Card: Galaxy GT 520 MDT
• Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
• Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 1TB SATA
• Optical Drive: Lite-On Blu-ray
• Case: Corsair Graphite Series 600T
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Overclocking:

• Galaxy GT 520 1000MHz Core/ 618MHz Memory

For gaming, this little card needs every advantage it can get with current titles. Increasing the clock speeds is the only way to increase the performance. The standard clock speeds of 810MHz on the core and 500MHz on the 1GB of GDDR3 memory left a lot to be desired with gaming performance. The final clock speeds I could reach with this card were a cool 1000MHz on the core and 618MHz on the memory. Both showed a more than modest 20+% increase over the factory baseline. These increases resulted in much improved FPS in the games that I tested. All through the testing the card remained a cool 49 to 53C under load.

• Gaming Tests:

1. Batman Arkham City
2. HAWX 2
3. Dirt 3
4. 3DMark 11

• Usage:

1. Temperature
2. Power Consumption