ZOTAC GeForce GT 520

NVIDIA GT 520

While Press Releases alone are generally not considered news here at Missing Remote the ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 is one of the first NVIDIA 500 series cards geared towards the HTPC market.

 

ZOTAC is pleased to accelerate your digital world with the new ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 graphics card.
 
General details

  • New ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 graphics card
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 GPU
  • Engine clock: 810 MHz
  • 48 unified shaders
  • Shader clock: 1620 MHz
  • 1GB DDR3 memory
  • Memory clock: 1600 MHz
  • 64-bit memory interface
  • Dual-link DVI, HDMI & VGA outputs
  • PCI Express 2.0 interface (Compatible with 1.1)
  • Microsoft DirectX 11 & OpenGL 4.1 compatible
  • NVIDIA CUDA technology with CUDA C/C++
  • NVIDIA PhysX technology
  • ZOTAC Boost Premium software bundle included

 

  • Anyone else eager to see what

    Anyone else eager to see what this can do?  I’ve been very happy with my GT 430 in both performance and stability, it has its downsides of course but if you need “proper” 24p support and don’t mind some fiddling to get 3D working right then it is a great HTPC card.  Hopefully the GT 520 fixes some of the nuisances found in the GT 430 3D setup….and maybe some video quality improvements as well.

    For those that haven’t checked it out yet, see Andrew’s review of the GT 430.

    • I can’t wait to give this a

      I can’t wait to give this a try and see how it compares against the GT 430 and the forthcoming 6450 offering from AMD.

    • mikinho wrote:
      Anyone else

      [quote=mikinho]

      Anyone else eager to see what this can do?  I’ve been very happy with my GT 430 in both performance and stability, it has its downsides of course but if you need “proper” 24p support and don’t mind some fiddling to get 3D working right then it is a great HTPC card.  Hopefully the GT 520 fixes some of the nuisances found in the GT 430 3D setup….and maybe some video quality improvements as well.

      For those that haven’t checked it out yet, see Andrew’s review of the GT 430.

      [/quote]

      This figures. I just bought a 430 GT the other week. I had to get a different motherboard because the 430 would not work with my AsRock’s x4 pci-e slot that my 2600xt had been working in. I think it had something to do with the 430 being 2.0. But I’ve been a bit disappointed in the 430’s performance so far. I have noticed some slight jitter every now and then when playing back recordings (or live TV). Do you notice that? I brought it up on thegreenbutton, and someone said they have that problem too (or at least the symptoms sound similar).

      What did you mean about the “fiddling to get 3D working right”? Do you mean the nvidia 3D vision or bluray 3D? What did you have to do?

      • htpc_user wrote:But I’ve been

        [quote=htpc_user]But I’ve been a bit disappointed in the 430’s performance so far. I have noticed some slight jitter every now and then when playing back recordings (or live TV). Do you notice that? I brought it up on thegreenbutton, and someone said they have that problem too (or at least the symptoms sound similar). What did you mean about the “fiddling to get 3D working right”? Do you mean the nvidia 3D vision or bluray 3D? What did you have to do?[/quote]

        I have not, what model in particular?  There have been a few threads on slight jitter w/ the GT 430 depending on what version of the DirectX runtime is installed.  I haven’t experienced it myself but my HTPC image also includes the latest runtime.

        In terms of the 3D support…I refer to Andrew’s review:

        As noted earlier the GT 430 supports proper 24p playback, but when 3D is enabled the driver no longer provides a 23/24Hz mode for 2D.  So selecting 23Hz via any of the methods discussed earlier actually changes to 24p 3D.  So some effort with the keyboard and mouse is required to enable 3D before and after watching a 3D title.

        So it is more of a driversettings issue than anything.  Not a show stopper but hindles the HTPC experience having to do anything manually to watch content in the intended experience.  While at CES Aaron had a change to meet with NVIDIA and ask them about it.  He can correct me if my memory is ailing but I believe they said the development driver added the necessary hooks for applications (i.e. TMTPDVDWinDVD) to enter the proper 3D mode as needed and revert back.  I also remember seeing a mention to it in a driver release notes but I don’t know whether any playback software has been updated to use it.

  • just based on the specs, i

    just based on the specs, i would expect the 430 to be the superior card

     

    half as many stream processors, texture units, ROPs, memory bandwidth with only minor bumps in clockspeed don’t scream 430-replacement to me.

    • In terms of specs the GT 530

      In terms of specs the GT 530 should be a more equivilent card but question is whether or not the lower specifications will results in a lose of quality in HTPC usage.  I don’t believe it will.  It should result in lower power consumption, heat (neither which were an issue with the GT 430 but still nice to see).  What I keep hoping to see from NVIDIA is an improvement in picture quality.

    • That’s cause it’s more of a

      That’s cause it’s more of a replacement for the GT 220.

  • i suppose it depends on  how

    i suppose it depends on  how much video processing is done in those stream processors v. dedicated transistors. i dont have a good answer to that question

  • I’ve generally been a fan of

    I’ve generally been a fan of ATI cards for PQ.  2 or 3 years ago when I rigged up my latest system, I tried out a few different cards at the time and I found that nvidia was lacking in video quality next to ATI.  I’ve bumped my card up a few times since but stuck with the ATI line.  Has nvidia’s PQ caught up with ATI’s?  (Could also just be a matter of my personal taste of what I think looks good)

    • A few years ago NVIDIA was

      A few years ago NVIDIA was noticably worse, but recently ATI’s drivers tend to apply too much noise reduction and brighten up the picture a bit too much for me in the default configuration so unless you want to tinker NVIDIA provides better PQ OOTB.  That said, I’m looking forward to the drivers and config interface AMD showed of at CES, hard to argue with putting that much control in our hands.

  • Last night I watched a full
    Last night I watched a full show of NCIS: Los Angeles. I thought it looked very good. This afternoon I came in and my wife and son were watching The Mummy Returns on DVD, and I thought that looked very good as well…almost HD-like. I went from a 2600xt to the 430. It could just be that it’s new so I “think” it looks better. It just seems the ATI was darker. One of the recorded shows I tried out when I first got the card was The Vampire Diaries (my wife’s show). It is usually a dark show, but everything looked much brighter with the 430. Time will tell how I like it, but right now I am more disgusted with Media Center after having to do a reinstall.