GeForce 9400 GT 256MB vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which comes with core speeds of 594 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 144 SPUs along with 24 TAUs and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		50 Watts
GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (12%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 440 3GB should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 30400 (238%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB should be a lot (about 224%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		4400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9856 (224%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 440 3GB is superior to the GeForce 9400 GT 256MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9400 GT 256MB		2200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12056 (548%)

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 transported across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better 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 the video card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.