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 ESTGRID: Autosport
No graphics tests are complete without some input from Codemasters and the EGO engine, which means for this round of testing we point towards GRID: Autosport, the next iteration in the GRID and racing genre. As with our previous racing testing, each update to the engine aims to add in effects, reflections, detail and realism, with Codemasters making ‘authenticity’ a main focal point for this version.
GRID’s benchmark mode is very flexible, and as a result we created a test race using a shortened version of the Red Bull Ring with twelve cars doing two laps. The car is focus starts last and is quite fast, but usually finishes second or third. Both the average and minimum frame rates are recorded.
For this test we used the following settings with our graphics cards:
| GRID: Autosport Settings | |||
| Resolution | Quality | ||
| Low GPU | Integrated Graphics | 1920x1080 | Medium |
| ASUS R7 240 1GB DDR3 | |||
| Medium GPU | MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB | 1920x1080 | Maximum |
| MSI R9 285 Gaming 2G | |||
| High GPU | ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB | 1920x1080 | Maximum |
| MSI R9 290X Gaming 4G | |||
It would seem that GRID is a repeat of Grand Theft Auto: for AMD cards that are mid-to-high end, the Athlon X4 845 performs at the top of the class, whereas for the NVIDIA cards, performance would suggest to chose the Pentium CPU.
![GRID: Autosport on ASUS R7 240 DDR3 2GB ($70) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82715.png)
![GRID: Autosport on MSI R9 285 Gaming 2GB ($240) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82723.png)
![GRID: Autosport on MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB ($245) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82733.png)
![GRID: Autosport on MSI R9 290X Gaming LE 4GB ($380) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82743.png)
![GRID: Autosport on ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB ($560) [Minimum FPS]](https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph10436/82753.png)
The minimum frame rate results also get the same result: AMD + AMD or Intel + NVIDIA.
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coder111 - Friday, July 15, 2016 - link
Wow, another Asus A6 user. I still use my K73TA daily. Quite happy with it. Never tried overclocking, but now that you mention it I will.How does the cooling hold up? I have had my laptop shutdown several times due to temperature getting too high after heavy APU+dGPU use.
I just wish there was a way to replace 6550M with something faster...
TheinsanegamerN - Friday, July 15, 2016 - link
Repaste the parts. The paste on that thing is half a decade old.Also, undervolt the chips. You can cut a ton of voltage off of the CPU with k10stat.
If you really want to go DIY, there are those like me that cut a hole in the bottom of the laptop and put a grill over the fan, that lowered temps by about 20C for me.
coder111 - Friday, July 15, 2016 - link
Hi,Thanks for ideas! I'm on Linux, so I'll see if there are k10stat alternatives on Linux. I'll definitely repaste the parts. And I'll see if I can do the grill on the bottom as well...
--Coder
coder111 - Friday, July 15, 2016 - link
Could you post the pics of your grill on the bottom somewhere?Thanks
TheinsanegamerN - Friday, July 15, 2016 - link
That laptop is long gone, im afraid. The chassis did not hold up very well to my constant moving.There was a forum on notebookreview about doing said mod, but the pictures are no longer available. the waybackmachine might be able to provide pics.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/k53ta-bbr6...
TheinsanegamerN - Friday, July 15, 2016 - link
I had the exact same laptop! I went with an a4 to force the dGPU, since AMD kept screwing up the ability to choose which GPU you wanted to use. 3.2 GHz dual core was amazing.Sushisamurai - Thursday, July 14, 2016 - link
I like this pseudo-new review format. Very clean, and the shout out to manufacture/companies was a nice touch. I think u should include if the SSD's are MLC or TLC In that brief summary for those who forget.keg504 - Thursday, July 14, 2016 - link
What does OCCT mean? It doesn't seem to be explained in the articleArnulf - Thursday, July 14, 2016 - link
http://www.ocbase.com/ ?keg504 - Friday, July 15, 2016 - link
Ah, thanks. A cursory search of google gave me many different results for OCCT