GeForce GT 440 3GB vs Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 600 MHz. The DDR3 memory works at a frequency of 800 MHz on this particular card. It features 80(16x5) SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB		25 Watts
GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
	Difference: 31 Watts (124%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GT 440 3GB should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 30400 (238%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB should be much (approximately 197%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9456 (197%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB will be a lot (approximately 494%) better at anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11856 (494%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, 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 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of 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 Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. 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 lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.