GeForce GT 440 1.5GB vs GeForce GTX 280

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 280, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 602 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a speed of 1107 MHz on this card. It features 240 SPUs as well as 80 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		56 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 180 Watts (321%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 280, in theory, should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 98496 (228%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 should be much (more or less 238%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33904 (238%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 will be quite a bit (about 35%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5008 (35%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it 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 high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.