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 ESTMiddle-Earth: Shadows of Mordor
The final title in our testing is another battle of system performance with the open world action-adventure title, Shadows of Mordor. Produced by Monolith using the LithTech Jupiter EX engine and numerous detail add-ons, SoM goes for detail and complexity to a large extent, despite having to be cut down from the original plans. The main story itself was written by the same writer as Red Dead Redemption, and it received Zero Punctuation’s Game of The Year in 2014.
For testing purposes, SoM gives a dynamic screen resolution setting, allowing us to render at high resolutions that are then scaled down to the monitor. As a result, we get several tests using the in-game benchmark, taking results as the average and minimum frame rates.
For this test we used the following settings with our graphics cards:
| Shadow of Mordor Settings | |||
| Resolution | Quality | ||
| Low GPU | Integrated Graphics | 1280x720 | Low |
| ASUS R7 240 1GB DDR3 | |||
| Medium GPU | MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB | 1920x1080 | Ultra |
| MSI R9 285 Gaming 2G | |||
| High GPU | ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB | 1920x1080 3840x2160 |
Ultra Ultra |
| MSI R9 290X Gaming 4G | |||
Shadow of Mordor, in all cases except the GTX 770, puts the Pentium ahead of the Carrizo part. In a couple of circumstances, this doesn't matter much, particularly at 4K resolutions with the R9 290X and GTX 980, however at 1080p the Pentium comes out ahead.
![Shadow of Mordor on ASUS R7 240 DDR3 2GB ($70) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82717.png)
![Shadow of Mordor on MSI R9 285 Gaming 2GB ($240) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82725.png)
![Shadow of Mordor on MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB ($245) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82735.png)
![Shadow of Mordor on MSI R9 290X Gaming LE 4GB ($380) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82745.png)
![Shadow of Mordor on MSI R9 290X Gaming LE 4GB ($380) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82747.png)
![Shadow of Mordor on ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB ($560) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82755.png)
![Shadow of Mordor on ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB ($560) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82757.png)
Minimum frame rates for Shadow of Mordor are even more in favor of the Pentium here, and with the low-to-mid range graphics cards (R7 240, R9 285, GTX 770) the effect can be up to double the minimum frame rate over the Athlon.
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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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