GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 vs GeForce GT 440 1.5GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 594 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 192-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 144 SPUs, 24 Texture Address Units, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		56 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (12%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 440 1.5GB should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 27200 (170%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 1.5GB is a lot (more or less 62%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5456 (62%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 1.5GB will be a lot (about 224%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 1.5GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9856 (224%)

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 max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus 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 better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, 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 can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs 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, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.