GeForce GT 440 1.5GB vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which features core clock speeds of 772 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 512 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 48 ROPs.

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

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be 345% quicker than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (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 is quite a bit (about 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

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is superior to the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB, and very much so. (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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units 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 one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.