GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GT 440 1.5GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB, which comes with clock speeds of 594 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 1536 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 144 SPUs along with 24 TAUs and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		56 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (24%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB will be 238% quicker than the GeForce 8500 GT in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 30400 (238%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 1.5GB is much (more or less 296%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10656 (296%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 1.5GB is much (approximately 692%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 8500 GT, and also capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12456 (692%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.