GeForce 8400 GS 512MB vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 594 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 144 SPUs along with 24 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		40 Watts
GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
	Difference: 16 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 440 3GB should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		6400 MB/sec
	Difference: 36800 (575%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB should be much (more or less 174%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8400 GS 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9056 (174%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GT 440 3GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8400 GS 512MB		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11656 (448%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.