GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which has GPU core speed of 594 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR3 memory set to run at 900 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also features 144 SPUs, 24 Texture Address Units, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 19 Watts (34%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 440 3GB will be 35% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GTS overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 11200 (35%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB will be quite a bit (more or less 32%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3456 (32%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 440 3GB is superior to the GeForce 8600 GTS, by far. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8856 (164%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. 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 ability to get to the maximum fill rate.