GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB vs GeForce GT 440 3GB

Intro

Compare all 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 runs at a frequency of 900 MHz on this specific model. It features 144 SPUs as well as 24 TAUs and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		56 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 28 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 440 3GB will be 13% quicker than the GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB in general, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GT 440 3GB		43200 MB/sec
GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 4800 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB will be a lot (approximately 85%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 440 3GB. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 440 3GB		14256 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12144 (85%)

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 9600 GSO 384MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7656 (116%)

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 MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.