GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GT 440 1.5GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB, which comes with a clock speed of 594 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also uses a 192-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 144 SPUs, 24 Texture Address Units, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		56 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 14400 (33%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB will be a lot (more or less 119%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16944 (119%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB is superior to the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3856 (37%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

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