GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which has a clock frequency of 594 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also features a 192-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 144 SPUs, 24 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
	Difference: 9 Watts (19%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 440 3GB should in theory be much better than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 30400 (238%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB should be a lot (approximately 65%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		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 1GB DDR2		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 largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.