GeForce GT 230 vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 594 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a speed of 900 MHz on this specific model. It features 144 SPUs along with 24 Texture Address Units 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 GT 230		65 Watts
	Difference: 9 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 440 3GB is 13% faster than the GeForce GT 230 in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 230		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 4800 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB should be much (more or less 62%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5456 (62%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB will be much (approximately 224%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 230, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9856 (224%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.