GeForce 9600 GT 1GB vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 440 3GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 594 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 900 MHz on this specific model. It features 144 SPUs as well as 24 TAUs and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		95 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (70%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9600 GT 1GB should theoretically be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 440 3GB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
	Difference: 14400 (33%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GT 1GB will be much (about 46%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GT 440 3GB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		20800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6544 (46%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 440 3GB is quite a bit (more or less 37%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9600 GT 1GB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9600 GT 1GB		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3856 (37%)

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 MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling 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 chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.