GeForce GT 440 3GB vs Radeon HD 3870 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 3870 1GB, which has GPU core speed of 775 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR4 RAM set to run at 1125 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 320(64x5) Stream Processors, 16 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (89%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 3870 1GB should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce GT 440 3GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		72000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 28800 (67%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB is a small bit (approximately 15%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1856 (15%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GT 440 3GB is the winner, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1856 (15%)

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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at 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 chip could possibly record to the 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 card's 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.