GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which features GPU core speed of 594 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 900 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is made up of 144 SPUs, 24 TAUs, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
	Difference: 9 Watts (19%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 440 3GB should perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 20800 (93%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB should be much (about 65%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5616 (65%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GT 440 3GB is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9936 (230%)

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 max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better 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 applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

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