NVidia GeForce GT 440 Graphics Accelerator: Features, Comparison with Analogs and User Reviews

An excellent basis for organizing the graphics subsystem of the entry-level gaming system is the NVidia GeForce GT 440 video adapter. The characteristics of this accelerator are very modest against the background of flagship graphics solutions, but its presence alone is enough to run most existing gaming applications.

Niche Accelerator

The hero of this material is aimed at the segment of graphic accelerators of the initial level. This is confirmed by each of its technical characteristics. NVidia GeForce GT 440 graphics cards have a performance level that is higher than integrated graphics adapters, but less than GTX series video cards. As a result, the availability of such a video accelerator is enough to run most toys, but not at the maximum possible settings. Problems can arise only when trying to launch the most recent gaming applications on a PC with such an accelerator, which have increased requirements for hardware, including the graphics subsystem. But in this case we need an absolutely different computer with completely different parameters and specifications.

Main characteristics of the video accelerator

The total number of processor cores for outputting the image in this adapter is 96. The frequency of the functioning of the cores is 810 MHz in the NVidia GeForce GT 440. The characteristics of the processor itself indicate that it operates at a frequency of 1620 MHz. At the software level, NVidia proprietary technologies are supported in this product: PureVideo, PhysX and CUDA. Also, according to the specification, this solution supports the version of Direct X 11.0 and Open GL 4.0. The very same accelerator is designed for installation in the expansion slot of the motherboard PCI-E 16X version 2.0. Most often this adapter is equipped with VGA, HDMI and DVI ports. The latter, among other things, allows you to display an image directly on 2 monitors when there is an appropriate adapter. When connected to a VGA port, the video signal is output in analog format, and its maximum resolution can be set to 2048X1536. In other cases, a digital code is already in use, and the resolution ceiling is set to 2560X1600.

Type of heat sink system. Temperature values and heat package

The thermal package of this GPU is 65 watts. The use of a passive heat sink system is limited precisely by this characteristic of the NVidia GeForce GT 440. ASUS, PALIT and all the other manufacturers of graphics accelerators are forced to complete this graphics processor only with an active cooling system, which includes an aluminum radiator and cooler. According to the specification, the maximum temperature that is allowed for this chip is 98 ⁰ C. In reality, during the operation of such a graphics accelerator its values are limited to a range of 50-75 ⁰ C. Separately, it is also necessary to note the requirements for the power supply of the system unit, the power of which The use of a video subsystem based on such an accelerator should not be less than 300 W.

RAM, its possible types and bus width

NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 targets the use of RAM of DDR3 or GDDR5 standards. The characteristics of this accelerator indicate that in combination with the first type of RAM its operating frequency will be 0.9 GHz, but in the second case this value will increase and will be equal to 1, 6 GHz. Bandwidth for DDR3 is stated at 28 Gb / s, and for GDDR5 - 51 Gb / sec. The size of the RAM bus of all the accelerators of this series is the same and equal to 128 bits. Although the use of RAM-standard GDDR5 is more preferable in terms of performance, but here is a significant gain from its use in this case does not work. And the main reason here lies in its volume, which in this performance is only 512 MB, and this is clearly not enough for comfortable work with screens with high resolutions. But when equipping such a video card with DDR3 memory, the volume of the video buffer can be increased to 1 GB or even up to 2 GB. This volume is already enough for the fast output of the image in high resolution, but here the use of the currently out-of-date RAM affects the performance of the adapter in the best way. The summary characteristics of the memory subsystem of this model of the graphics adapter are given in the table.

Analogues and comparison with them

The integrated graphics cards are the main competitors of the NVidia GeForce GT 440. The characteristic that provides a higher level of performance of a PC with discrete graphics is a separate buffer of the video subsystem with an increased bit depth. It is due to this feature that we get improved performance in this case. When using integrated graphics, a part of the system RAM is used as a video buffer, access to which the adapter receives in parallel with the CPU. Also in this case, the capacity of the RAM and its frequency are reduced and the bandwidth is reduced. All this entirely relates to the Radeon accelerators for chips and AMD and HD Graphics for Intel processors embedded in the CPU. Therefore, to increase the overall performance of the PC, it is better to add a relatively small amount and install a discrete entry-level graphics accelerator into it. In this case, the gain in terms of performance will be obvious.

The price of the accelerator. User Reviews

In a new state, such a video card can no longer be purchased. It has been discontinued long ago, and its stock has been sold. In the used state, this accelerator can be bought at a price not more than 4000 rubles. This cost entirely corresponds to the parameters and performance of NVidia GeForce GT 440. The characteristic of this video card on the part of the owners indicates that this is an excellent solution for the implementation of the video subsystem of the entry-level gaming PC. There are no essential shortcomings.

Results

Here is such an excellent entry-level graphics card is the NVidia GeForce GT 440. Its characteristics and cost fully correspond to the entry-level graphics accelerators. In this case, the inclusion of such a discrete graphics significantly increases the speed of the computer system and allows you to more quickly solve resource-intensive tasks.