Today, when the economic situation in the country and the world is far from perfect, many computer users faced a difficult dilemma: which video card to choose? I want the device to allow at least some games to play, but at the same time it would not cost exorbitant money. In this case, the Nvidia GT 440 may be an ideal solution.
General information
The video card described by us belongs to the category of budget devices. Just note that in stores this model is extremely rare, since it belongs to a variety of OEM devices. Simply put, theoretically it can only be used by companies that assemble computers. For this reason, it can often be found, sorting through old branded computers. Surprisingly, sometimes far from cheap system units were equipped with this model. Although, rather, this does not indicate the high performance of this video card, but the greed of the assemblers. The system unit of 2013, for which the owner gave more than 50 thousand rubles, equipped with a budget model of a video card, is at least perplexing. Of course, in this case, the user is disappointed with the performance of the system, which is clearly not suitable for modern games that require very strong components. Although such cases are not too frequent. Rather, this card is bought by those users who are well aware of its performance.
Analogue
In stores, the Nvidia GT 440 is not much more common, but its closest analogue is the GT 450. There is practically no difference between them (with the exception of a slightly different core).
As with all other video cards from this company, not only Nvidia was engaged in its production, but also its certified partners, which include Asus, MSI, Gigabite and others. Note that some manufacturers (Asus, for example) initially assumed the likelihood that users would want to do overclocking.
Of course, this card is far from the ultimate dream of experienced gamers, but it is really possible to overclock it, having received a performance increase in the range of 7-10%, which is very good for a budget model. True, in AAA games you will not see any effect from overclocking.
Specifications
So, the Nvidia GT 440 card based on the GF108 core was released. The manufacturing process is 40 nm. The graphics processor operates at a frequency of 810 MHz, which is a very good indicator for a budget video card. On board there is only one gigabyte of RAM type DDR3 with a frequency of 1800 MHz. It should be noted that occasionally there were Nvidia GT 440 models, which used the much more advanced GDDR5 operating at a frequency of 3200 MHz as memory. But such options are quite rare.
On the front side there are three standard graphic ports: DVI, HDMI and VGA. The video card supports DirectX 11. In fairness, it should be said that practically nothing changes in games, since the technical characteristics of the GT440 simply do not allow you to use all the advantages of this version of DX.
Cooling and drivers
The cooling system depends on the "frills" of a particular manufacturer. However, there is nothing special about it: the simplest aluminum radiator and cooler. No additional power is required when connecting. Peak power - 65 watts. The latter will surely please the builders of quiet home systems, which do not require high performance.
As a rule, on Nvidia GT 440 drivers are either installed automatically during OS installation (Windows 8 / 8.1 / 10), or they are pulled back later from the Windows Update Center (Windows 7). This does not apply to the old XP: drivers must either be installed from the disk that came with the card, or downloaded separately from the Internet.
If the user has at least some experience, then this operation will certainly not create any special problems. True, in practice there are comical cases when a user who bought a GF 440 for installation in a more or less modern computer finds himself in difficulty: the drivers in the kit go to a CD-ROM, but it may not appear in the system unit of the drive.
Optimal option
It is not by chance that we mentioned the Nvidia GT 440 video card manufactured by Asus twice. It not only has a catchy, attractive design, but is also dispersed from the factory. If money is scarce, but a more or less adequate discrete component is needed, then this option will be optimal. Of course, the latest AAA-series games she still can not handle, but the models of past years, this equipment will surely suit.
In addition, the model from Asus is available on a higher quality textolite and is distinguished by its large size cooler. A fan of such dimensions not only copes better with cooling, but also makes much less noise.
By the way, to what temperature can the video card of this model be heated at all? Practice shows that with maximum manual overclocking of the chip (up to 1.5 thousand MHz), the temperature can reach 58 degrees Celsius. In the "stock" mode, the graphics processor rarely heats up even to 47 degrees.
Best performance
It is this graphics card that has on board GDDR5 with high frequency. However, this model makes noticeably more stringent requirements for the power supply: it requires a minimum of 300 watts, while more modest varieties are successfully “wound up” and work even on older power supplies with less power. But such models have not been seen on the market for a long time, so it’s not worth worrying about.
Regardless of the manufacturer, the Nvidia GT 440, the characteristics of which are given in the article, is very quiet. Since the device consumes very little energy even at its peak, the heating is very weak. Because of this, the model is recommended for the assembly of small-sized computers with a small internal volume of the case.
Reviews and recommendations
So, for what purpose can the Nvidia Geforce GT 440 be used? Windows 7 (x64 bit) + 8 GB of system memory and GF 440 in total give a pretty good system. In particular, the owners of this video card confirm that it is quite suitable for WoT and similar games, so it’s quite possible to play “airplanes” and “ships”.
As for the more serious games, then everything is more complicated. Gamers claim that the Metro-33 is difficult, but goes at settings slightly above the minimum. Games released after 2013, unfortunately, it is better not to run. Even if they go (which is unlikely), it is exclusively in the mode of a very leisurely “slide show”.
But with video playback there are no problems at all. So, this video card shows clips in 720p and 1080p without much difficulty. Owners of old computers note that Flash videos obey her without any problems. And it pleases, considering how gluttonous modern browsers have become in terms of consumed resources.
We strongly recommend that you install drivers on the Nvidia GT 440 graphics card only from the official site, or even entrust this to the operating system itself. First, on unverified resources, driver versions are almost always very old. Secondly, and more importantly, malware often comes with them.