Grok 4.5 VS Claude Opus 4.8: Who Wins?

**Julian Goldie** (0:00)
So, we've been testing out Grok 4.5 versus Opus 4.8. I want to show you what we've seen today and how it performs, and whether Grok 4.5 actually beats Claude Opus 4.8. I've actually been very impressed by Grok 4.5 so far. It's performing very well. It's created some really interesting things. So, let's see how it performs side by side. We've actually got the compare section over here. We can compare both of them. We've tested 48 different models side by side and tasks. So, let's see how they perform. We've got Grok 4.5 on the left hand side, Opus 4.8 on the right hand side. On the benchmarks, it actually looks like Grok 4.5 is on a similar level. But what does it look like in reality? Because I don't like to pay too much attention to benchmarks. I think we've all been in the situation where things don't feel or look the same as the benchmarks that we see. And that's why I actually created Goldiebench. So first thing that we're going to test is the Crypt game. So this is Grok 4.5, as you can see. Pretty nice, easy to play, nice graphics, 3D, works smoothly, gameplay is good. And it's created like this kind of maze game. As you can see, it's fun and interesting to play.
Now if we actually have a look at the version from Opus 4.8, it didn't generate, it totally failed at the task. We created the entry page here, but nothing else. So, so far, Grok 4.8 won, Grok 4.5, sorry. It gets confusing between the numbers to be honest with you. Next up, we have Dragon Realm. So I'm going to play these side by side. This is Grok 4.5, not too bad, pretty smooth to play, looks quite nice.
And then let's compare this versus Opus 4.8.
Now, one of the things that I've noticed straight away with Opus 4.8 is that the controls are kind of reversed.
But I would actually say like the 3D landscape is probably better with Opus 4.8. So I'm going to put that as a tie because the controls are easier with Grok 4.5, but Opus 4.8 wins on the gameplay. So it's a tie on that one. So, so far, Grok 4.5 has won one and Claude hasn't won any. Next up, we have the racing game. So this is Grok 4.5 and this is Opus 4.8. Opus 4.8 totally failed on the racing game. As you can see, it's like super buggy. Let's compare it versus Grok 4.5.
Pretty nice, smooth, fun to play, difficult to play, but it's actually like a playable and useful game. You know, the graphics are even nice as well. So that's pretty cool. So 2 to Opus 4.5, 2 to Grok 4.5 and to Opus 4.8. Let's compare the next one. Which is the Skyrim style game. So I think we're going to have to go full screen to play this properly. There we go. It's smooth. It's fun. The graphics are a little bit basic, but overall, it's pretty smooth and fun to play.
Actually playable, actually useful. Very open world, like it seems like a massive game when you actually walk around in it. Now, if we compare that to Opus 4.8, I would say the graphics have more detail just on a slightly better level. But there's nothing really going on here, right? There's no, for example, enemies, there's no characters. It's just you first person walking around. So there's not that much interesting stuff going on. So yeah, I would say the Grok 4.5 won. And by the way, like, don't listen to me. Don't trust anyone else. Just test this stuff out yourself. But if you want to see what I've built, you can check out Goldiebench. But I always think it's better to check this stuff out yourself. See what you think, go from there. Now, this is Twilight Vale with Grok 4.5. The camera angle is a little bit hard to control. It does feel like a little bit small, but maybe that's just because we need to walk around more. Let's compare that versus Opus 4.8. Opus 4.8 doesn't get past the beginner's page here. So you can see we're clicking to begin, but it doesn't work. So 4 to Grok 4.5 and to Opus 4.8. Now, let's have a look at Voxelcraft. So this is kind of like a Minecraft style game. So you can see we can walk around, we can build stuff.
It actually has a functionality to build, as you can see right here. And then we can select the blocks that we want as well. So we can switch between them, which is nice and useful too. I think it's a little bit buggy over here. Oh, we've got all these crazy characters running after us now. Difficult, difficult. Alright, that was pretty nice. Let's have a look at Opus 4.8. Pretty bad, pretty bad. This is super basic. So 5 to Grok 4.5 and to Opus 4.8 so far. Now, we've got this one here as well, which is like a virtual runner. Doesn't work on Opus 4.8 so you can see here, and it doesn't work really on Grok 4.5. I wouldn't say either of them actually created an infinitesim here. This is super laggy and buggy and you just can't play it. This one you can't play at all either. So I would say they drew on that one too. Then we have the driving game. So this is Grok 4.5.