14 DAY TRIAL // Gigabyte has just announced that it has updated its product line in order to feature two new graphics cards based on the recently released Nvidia GT 440 core, both cards featuring an improved cooling design as well as higher than standard operating frequencies.
When put head to head, Gigabyte's boards bear an eerie resemblance as the Taiwanese company has decided to use the same cooling solution as well as the same blue PCB for both models.
However, when their specs are compared, it becomes apparent that as far as performance is concerned, the cards are quite different from each other.
The speed gap is caused by the memory installed as the GV-N440D3-1GI uses 1GB of slower DDR3 memory clocked at 1800MHz while its older brother, the GV-N440TC-1GI, features 512MB of GDDR5 memory, which runs at a more respectable 3200MHz.
The GPU clock, however, has remained unchanged as both cards have their core set at 830 MHz, 20MHz more than the stock frequency.
Speaking of the GPU, this is actually a higher clocked version of the GT 430, is based on the GF108 core, and features 96 stream processors, 16 texturing units, 4 ROP units and a 128 bit memory bus.
The card's TDP is estimated at a rather low 56W, enabling it to operate without requiring additional power.
This also allows for the card to be cooled using only a basic cooling solutions, in Gigabyte's case this being comprised of an aluminum orb-like heatsink and an 80mm fan.
Connectivity wise, both models pack DSUB (VGA), DVI and HDMI 1.4a outputs, a pretty standard port setup for such an entry-level graphics card.
Sadly, no details regarding pricing were provided together with the press release, but these two video cards are expected to hover around the $85 US mark.