GeForce 9800 GTX vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which features a clock speed of 594 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also uses a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 144 SPUs, 24 Texture Address Units, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
	Difference: 84 Watts (150%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GTX should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce GT 440 3GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 27200 (63%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX will be a lot (about 203%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 440 3GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 28944 (203%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB should be much (more or less 32%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 9800 GTX, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3456 (32%)

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 max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, 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, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.