9600GT or 440GT

[Jatlec26]

On a $40 budget and my crappy 8300GS fried on me. I can get a PNY 9600GT for $31.50 or a Galaxy 440GT for $37. I intend on gaming a little.

9600GT- 512MB, 286bit, GDDR3, DX 10, 650 MHz core clock

440GT- 2GB, 64bit, GDDR3, DX11, 810 MHz core clock

Which is better and why? Either would be a big upgrade from my 8300GS.

I'm open to other suggestions around the same price.

 

[nforce4max]

A 9600GT is faster than a 64bit GT430/440 any day of the week and shader wise the Fermi card would be faster but lack of memory bandwidth and poor fill rates makes it under perform. I used to have a 128bit version before it got incinerated with everything else. The 9600GT isn't bad but has to be tweaked to get the most out of it. If you get the 9600 download riva tuner and unlink the core from the shader clocks then nuke the shader which will give a healthy boost. 1.7ghz while leaving the core at stock is a breeze. When you can look for something better like a cheap 256bit gtx 460 338 shader version as it is a beast on a budget.