nVidia GT 440 (OEM only card, but... what?!)

[Lonyo]

So, it's an OEM only card, you won't be able to buy it, and in many ways it's not all that exciting except...

192-bit memory bus. 1.5GB or 3GB GDDR3.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gt-440-oem-us.html

Same GPU as the GTS 450, but with a disabled core cluster so only 144 shaders, and lower clocks (I think).
But, it does have all 3 memory controllers enabled for a 192-bit memory bus instead of the 128-bit of the GTS450, which also allows the extra RAM.

Definitely a designed for OEM card so they can proudly display an insane amount of RAM on a card that really doesn't have any used for it.
I did just find it very interesting they decided to make this a 192-bit card. Surely that's not why they built it into the GPU? Just so OEMs could push an insane RAM amount?

Are there any applications where despite the weak core,s that amount of RAM could be useful? (GPGPU type applications not gaming, obviously). Workstation cards tend to have a lot of RAM, so is there a potential for it to be useful on this card?

 

[v8envy]

One possible use is MMOs. Running 5-10 game clients at once soaks up a huge amount of GPU ram.

So for sweatshops grinding up game gold or selling powerleveled characters this could be a useful product.

Pretty tiny niche to design for. I suspect a retail sticker of "1337 jiggybytes of ram" is the real goal.

As an aside, did anyone else think of the '440MX' when seeing that model number?

 

[tviceman]

OEM checklists suck.

 

[notty22]

Ram is akin to a commodity.
They probably can match memory performance with the wider bus and slower memory. This will allow them to use up their stock piles of gddr3 which is probably already paid for.

 

[RussianSensation]

So, it's an OEM only card, you won't be able to buy it, and in many ways it's not all that exciting except...

What do you mean about RAM not being useful? You mean to tell me that my GeForce 8400 1GB 64-bit card can't take advantage of its 1GBs of RAMsssssssssss? Oh no D:

Hey, look on the bright side, GT440 if priced at $100 by OEMs with 144 SPs and 192-bit memory bandwidth is still a lot better than $79 GT430 :thumbsup:

 

[Zap]

192-bit memory bus. 1.5GB or 3GB GDDR3.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gt-440-oem-us.html

Same GPU as the GTS 450, but with a disabled core cluster so only 144 shaders, and lower clocks (I think).
But, it does have all 3 memory controllers enabled for a 192-bit memory bus instead of the 128-bit of the GTS450, which also allows the extra RAM.

Wider memory bus, but GDDR3 instead of GDDR5 so I would think that overall memory bandwidth would still suffer.

 

[edplayer]

I'd pay $15 for it. Maybe $20