AMD Carrizo Part 2: A Generational Deep Dive into the Athlon X4 845 at $70
by Ian Cutress on July 14, 2016 9:00 AM ESTGrand Theft Auto V
The highly anticipated iteration of the Grand Theft Auto franchise finally hit the shelves on April 14th 2015, with both AMD and NVIDIA in tow to help optimize the title. GTA doesn’t provide graphical presets, but opens up the options to users and extends the boundaries by pushing even the hardest systems to the limit using Rockstar’s Advanced Game Engine. Whether the user is flying high in the mountains with long draw distances or dealing with assorted trash in the city, when cranked up to maximum it creates stunning visuals but hard work for both the CPU and the GPU.
For our test we have scripted a version of the in-game benchmark, relying only on the final part which combines a flight scene along with an in-city drive-by followed by a tanker explosion. We record both the average frame rate and the percentage of frames under 60 FPS (16.6ms).
For this test we used the following settings with our graphics cards:
| Grand Theft Auto Settings | |||
| Resolution | Quality | ||
| Low GPU | Integrated Graphics | 1280x720 | Lowest |
| ASUS R7 240 1GB DDR3 | |||
| Medium GPU | MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB | 1920x1080 | Very High |
| MSI R9 285 Gaming 2G | |||
| High GPU | ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB | 1920x1080 | Very High |
| MSI R9 290X Gaming 4G | |||
We get a slightly different turn around with Grand Theft Auto: the game can use multiple cores in the Athlon X4 845 to get a better frame rate with the R9 285 and R9 290X. However with NVIDIA cards it seems that the cores matter less to the performance, and with these cards the Pentium gets the better frame rates.
![Grand Theft Auto V on ASUS R7 240 DDR3 2GB ($70) [Under 60 FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82713.png)
![Grand Theft Auto V on MSI R9 285 Gaming 2GB ($240) [Under 60 FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82721.png)
![Grand Theft Auto V on MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB ($245) [Under 60 FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82731.png)
![Grand Theft Auto V on MSI R9 290X Gaming LE 4GB ($380) [Under 60 FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82741.png)
![Grand Theft Auto V on ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB ($560) [Under 60 FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82751.png)
When we look at the % of frames under 60 FPS, we see a similar story with the results that actually make a difference (R7 240, GTX 980).
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Lolimaster - Monday, July 18, 2016 - link
If they don't put the full 4MB l2 for Bristol Ridge desktop, don't even bother to release it.Im actually thinking that they decided to axe BR for desktops and will be focused on Zen FX, survive with FM2+ a bit more for value and then unveil Raven Ridge Zen APU at CES.
Visual - Tuesday, July 19, 2016 - link
The "Pages in this review" links are messed up and lead to one page after what they say.In addition, your "remember me" checkbox for login when posting comments remembers nothing.
prodikl - Tuesday, July 19, 2016 - link
Could you guys please add a few more data points in your comparisons, e.g. against an i3, an i7, a celeron, tegra x1 etc. instead of just immediate-neighbor comps? I have no at-a-glance idea of how this stacks up against other CPUs in the grand scheme of things.LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, July 19, 2016 - link
If I can't get a lower-power desktop variant with the integrated GPU, Carizzo does nothing for me. I'd be happy to swap a Braswell N3700 board that Intel is falling down on with the iGPU drivers (overscan/scalling settings are broken, it's been a year with no fix), but that's what I need to get one of these;; I don't need a desktop unit without a GPU, and I don't need a notebook. I need a media center, and Carizzo would be ideal for it.eek2121 - Tuesday, July 19, 2016 - link
Nice review on the 1060! Oh wait...jfelano - Thursday, July 21, 2016 - link
Not a gamer, so who cares. AMD continues to smoke Intel at performance per dollar.Xanavi - Thursday, July 21, 2016 - link
Please get rid of Outbrainachamate - Monday, August 22, 2016 - link
I have no need for Intel CPU, ever, to do everything including heavy applications and games. Maybe benchmarks numbers are not AMD favor, but 99% of users wont see any difference. Save money still on AMD side and I hope stays like that. I do have a laptop with i5, by accident, a very cheap used one but I still use AMD for heavy editing or gaming. If I get a recent generation i7 for free I will sell it, for sure. Again, is probably 99% people out there wont see any difference. Spend your money on video, memory, ssd and hot dogs, thats all. Thanks.h3r3t1k - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
I'm looking to pair my RX 460 which is PCIe x8 with either the X4 845 or 880K. Should I go for the 845 with this card?wiboonsin - Sunday, November 26, 2017 - link
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