GeForce GT 440 1.5GB vs GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, which features core clock speeds of 738 MHz on the GPU, and 1100 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 128 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		56 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 89 Watts (159%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB, in theory, should be much faster than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 27200 (63%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be much (approximately 231%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32976 (231%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB is superior to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, by far. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2448 (21%)

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 maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.