GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 594 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 144 SPUs as well as 24 TAUs and 24 ROPs.

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

Theoretically, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should be quite a bit faster than 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 should be quite a bit (approximately 439%) faster with regards to 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

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GX2 is the winner, by a large margin. (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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.