GeForce GT 440 3GB vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this card. It features 336 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 104 Watts (186%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is 167% faster than the GeForce GT 440 3GB overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 72000 (167%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be quite a bit (about 165%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 440 3GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 23544 (165%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7344 (52%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.