GeForce GT 440 3GB vs Radeon R9 M290X

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 M290X, which comes with GPU core speed of 850 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1200 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1280 Stream Processors, 80 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
Radeon R9 M290X		100 Watts
	Difference: 44 Watts (79%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 M290X is 256% faster than the GeForce GT 440 3GB in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 M290X		153600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 110400 (256%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M290X is much (approximately 377%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 440 3GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 M290X		68000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 53744 (377%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon R9 M290X is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon R9 M290X		27200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12944 (91%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.