GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which comes with a core clock speed of 594 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also features a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 144 SPUs, 24 TAUs, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (70%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9600 GT 1GB should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce GT 440 3GB in general. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 14400 (33%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 1GB should be much (about 46%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 440 3GB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6544 (46%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB should be a lot (approximately 37%) better at AA than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it 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 high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.