GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which comes with a clock speed of 594 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also uses a 192-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 144 SPUs, 24 TAUs, 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 9600 GSO 512MB		90 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, in theory, should be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 440 3GB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 14400 (33%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB should be quite a bit (more or less 119%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 440 3GB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16944 (119%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB will be a lot (about 37%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3856 (37%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the 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 can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.