GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which has core speeds of 594 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 144 SPUs as well as 24 TAUs and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 141 Watts (252%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should in theory be much superior to the GeForce GT 440 3GB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 84800 (196%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 is a lot (more or less 439%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 440 3GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 62544 (439%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be quite a bit (about 35%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 440 3GB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4944 (35%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.