GeForce GT 310 vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which has core speeds of 594 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 144 SPUs along with 24 Texture Address Units and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (81%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 440 3GB should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the GeForce GT 310 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 27200 (170%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB is a lot (approximately 203%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9544 (203%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GT 440 3GB is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11900 (505%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one 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 video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. 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 quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.