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 speed at 594 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 900 MHz on this card. It features 144 SPUs along with 24 Texture Address Units and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

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

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 440 3GB should in theory be a little bit better than the GeForce GT 230 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB is a lot (more or less 62%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GT 440 3GB is superior to the GeForce GT 230, and very much so. (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 largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant 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 maximum fill rate.