Good substitute for GT240 DDR5?

[DeiF]

Hi.
My GT240 DDR5 (Xfx) card broke recently and I'm in process of substituting it.
I want an equivalent or better card.
I have the feeling that going for DDR3 now would be a downgrade.

Since I need video acceleration, I'm used to twinview (2 monitors) and I do moderate 3D stuff, I'm narrowing it to Nvidia cards.

I'm undecided between these two: GT440 512MB DDR5 and GTX550 TI 1GB DDR5.
I would like to see your opinion for these cards as well as other cards near that budget.

For example, I heard that in some aspects the GT440 is inferior to the GT240. I would like to understand why and if that's important.
Also how's the power consumption and noise on the 550? Any Linux issues? other things to consider?
My system is fairly old (Athlon64 1.8Ghz, one of the firsts in 64bit) and not-so-well ventilated.

[Kano]

The 550 ti is about 15-20% slower as a gtx 460/768 and uses a bit less energy for that. I would prefer a gtx 460/1024 which might be available for the same price when you get it 2nd hand.

[Richard Wolf VI]

The 550 is clearly superior to the 440. The 440 (the retail variant, not the OEM one) is just an overclocked 430, which is known to lag behind the 240. In AMD terms, the 440 should be on par with the 5570, so it's a weak card, the 550 should be about the same performance as a 5770.

What prices are you looking for? If your budget allows it, get the GTX 460, it's still the best card for its price. More than ventilation (stock fans ought to be enough), be careful to have an adequate power supply (at least an actual 450 W one).

Personally, I have a XFX GTS 250 and it has worked quite well, but if you're looking for something newer and more powerful, look up the 460.

[DeiF]

Thanks for your comments.

Unfortunately I went to the local shop and instead of returning me the money I paid for the GT240 (which was the original deal, since it was still in warranty) they just gave me a Gigabyte GT440 1GB DDR3 in exchange.

I'm still puzzled whether it was a good deal or not...

[Richard Wolf VI]

The GT 440 may be faster, but since it is a GDDR3 variant, things may get blurry performance wise. How much money are talking about? I'm sure you can get a better card for that price.

[DeiF]

The GT 440 may be faster, but since it is a GDDR3 variant, things may get blurry performance wise. How much money are talking about? I'm sure you can get a better card for that price.

The original deal was that they would return me the money that the card costs now (the GT240).
At the time of purchase it was exactly 76.50?. I have no idea how much exactly they would pay me now.
I thought I could add some more money to that and buy a better card.


But the deal is over now. They just gave me the GT440 and I accepted.
They said that replacing GT240's for GT440's was standard practice.

mfw:

[AlbertP]

Here's the TDP, which should give a good indication of the actual maximum power consumption:
GT 240: 69 W (GTS 240: 120 W)
GT 440: 65 W (retail) / 56 W (OEM)
GTX 550 Ti: 116 W

So the 550 uses a lot more power. You may need a more powerful PSU when switching to the 550, while going for the GT 440 shouldn't be a problem with your current PSU.