[EDIT]hmmm.....whats going on at AMD? (and history of 3Dfx Rampage)

[SteelCrysis]

Excavator reviewed, NeoSeeker repeatedly calls it "Evacuator" on the first page: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardwa...845/3.html

All three sets of testing data came from quad-core processors capable of running 4 threads and 64 bit data width. One difference is that the Athlon X4 845 CPU has a base operating frequency of 3.5 GHz versus the Athlon X4 880K's 4.0 GHz, and the A10-7890K APU at 4.1 GHz. The Athlon X4 845 CPU also uses Excavator microarchitecture with Carrizo cores, while the Athlon X4 880K CPU and A10-7890K APU leverage Steamroller architecture with Godavari cores.

Taking the base operating frequencies into consideration, the Athlon X4 845 CPU is at a 12.5 to 14.6 percent speed disadvantage against the other two CPUs, but the Excavator microarchitecture is touted to process 15 percent more instructions per clock cycle. Does this mean the Athlon X4 845 CPU should perform on par with the Athlon X4 880K or A10-7890K APU? Another factor is that the Carrizo core supports APU, but is turned off in the Athlon X4 845 CPU. Let’s see how these and other factors come into play with the data results.

I think when most people see, hear or read the word "fractal" they think of those kaleidoscope viewers that you hold to your eye and twist to get various images. The Apophysis test is no different in that you can manipulate the image in several aspects and produce amazing images. The file used for this test is only 12 KB in size, but usually takes over 10 minutes to complete. The three CPUs in this test all took ~12 minutes to complete, with a maximum of 30 seconds between completion times in all test runs.

The RAR test proved the oddest results in that the Athlon X4 845 is 15 seconds slower than both of the comparison CPUs. Then the Athlon X4 845 proved equal to the Athlon X4 880K while beating the A10-7890K in both ZIP tests. Handbrake is the last timed test and the results showed that processor speed does matter at times, with the overclocking tests highlighting the ~400/500 MHz speed advantage of the Athlon X4 880k and A10-7890K.

Geekbench 3, POV-Ray and Futuremark PCMark 8 all showed varying results, with no two-digit percentile differences in each. The Futuremark 3D Mark results placed the Athlon X4 845 lowest in the overall score, but best in the CPU Physics score. So does this mean the increased transistor density works to its advantage? Not if we look at the AIDA64 Queen Score that demonstrated the Athlon X4 845's low results, and its mixed results for the AIDA64 Mandel Score with the two comparison CPUs and their overclocking speeds surging ahead.

Moving to the SiSoftware Sandra tests used to benchmark the three CPUs, we find the Athlon X4 845's Dhrystone GIPS results more than 20 percent lower in the Processor Arithmetic tests, while its Whetstone GFLOPS results kept pace with the other two processors. The Athlon X4 845 also had issues with the Multi-Core Efficiency test, however its Memory Bandwidth results were over 15 percent higher than the other two CPUs. I would surmise that the first two tests relate to the lower operating speeds, whereas the second was able to better leverage the microarchitecture of the Athlon X4 845 CPU.

The last two tests of the Metro: Last Light and Batman: Arkham Origins games normally showcase nearly identical results across all processor speeds and resolutions, assuming the same video card is maintained throughout. In this case there was one difference, where the Athlon X4 845 CPU delivered ~11 percent lower frame rates at the 1920x1200 resolution for Arkham Origins. I would have to attribute this difference to the Athlon X4 845's 8-lane PCIe design.