GeForce GT 440 1.5GB vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 772 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 1002 MHz on this model. It features 512 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		56 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 188 Watts (336%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 149184 (345%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be a lot (more or less 247%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 35152 (247%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be quite a bit (about 160%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22800 (160%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's 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 calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

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