GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

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

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (24%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GT 440 3GB should theoretically be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8500 GT in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 30400 (238%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB is a lot (more or less 296%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10656 (296%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GT 440 3GB is superior to the GeForce 8500 GT, by far. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12456 (692%)

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.