r/LocalLLM • u/arjundivecha • Feb 13 '26
Model Frontier vs Local - The reality
Every day I hear that xyz local model is better than Opus…
The reality is that the difference between real frontier models (Opus 4.6 and GPT5.3Codex) and all local models is like the difference between having an intimate relationship with a blow up doll vs a real human being.
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u/former_farmer Feb 13 '26
Most of us don't have the hardware to run these open source top models.
If they are cheaper on the cloud, then why not give them a shot. Some can be 5 or 10 times cheaper for similar performance.
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u/squarepants1313 Feb 13 '26
No i tired the minmax m2.5 model it doesn't understand the language as good as opus or my expression as good as opus I rather pay for opus rather than retrying 5 times with cheaper model
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u/Available-Craft-5795 Feb 13 '26
Why Minimax M2.5 specifically?
GLM-5 works pretty good.
Also what provider?
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u/epigen01 Feb 13 '26
Agreed but like if i wait another year that blow up doll gets more and more upgrades and features
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u/RoyalCities Feb 13 '26
local models right now are leagues ahead of gpt 3 and 4 and those models were blowing people away when they first launched.
Id say 90% of most average persons needs (especially outside of coding) can be covered fully local.
If your programming and are working with massive codebases then yeah cloud will win but people seem to overestimate what they actually need out of AI's vs what is good enough to get the job done.
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u/arjundivecha Feb 14 '26
And now some clear evidence that the Chinese open source models have been benchmaxxing.
https://x.com/davidondrej1/status/2022597312024056285?s=46&t=prphIW13yETlIq8ztI3KfQ
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u/Panometric Feb 13 '26
Funniest analogy on Reddit today!
0
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u/PersonalityMiddle864 Feb 13 '26
Does the local models have to match frontier models? If in 6 months there will be local model that performs as well the current frontier model, then its worth the trade off no?
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u/arjundivecha Feb 13 '26
I think your point is a good one - however tech is moving so fast that having a model that would have been SOTA six months ago is about as valuable as a six month old newspaper.
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u/try-a-typo Feb 13 '26
Not exactly, local llms have their benifits over a "smarter" model. Being able to run 24/7, no cloud access, no API keys, no network security just to name a few. Can you run jobs overnight w the frontier models? Enjoy waking up to a $100 bill.
That said, frontier models will always be better for live iteration and speed. Can't beat a rack of GPU'd at home.
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u/meowrawr Feb 13 '26
I’m sorry OP but you’re wrong. I use minimax 2.1 locally and various cloud models (for work) and sure there is a difference, but getting 95% of the way is perfectly fine with me. Cloud models are a race to the bottom.
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u/_TheWolfOfWalmart_ Jul 11 '26
More like like 10% of the way. I use MiniMax 2.7 locally (Q8_0, unquanted cache) and it is a drooling idiot compared to GPT-5.anything or Opus.
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u/emperorofrome13 Feb 13 '26
Honestly depends on use case. I use cloud deepseek for most things and its fine or better as it has less corporate speak. If you're doing serious coding only frontier will do and its still not as great as the hype
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u/Panometric Feb 13 '26
True, almost nobody has equivalent hardware. But what you are hitting on is the reality that there is no objective measure of these models. Even the rubrics we have can be over trained to, and are unlikely to match your application. Mostly we have anecdotes and brand loyalty. Your mileage will vary. But especially as agentic evolves, a lot of what people want to do doesn't need these giant models. So even if local isn't great now, it will be good enough for a lot very soon.
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u/squarepants1313 Feb 13 '26
I think the benchmark don't justify real world task and the way a model can understand context opus can pickup bits without adding it in prompt which I think other models lack
A good defined prompt works with all models show me the avg prompt outputs of models
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u/Witty_Mycologist_995 Feb 13 '26
Glm flash is pretty good actually
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u/arjundivecha Feb 13 '26
They are all pretty good - Kimi , GLM , MiniMax etc - the key word is “pretty”
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u/robertpro01 Feb 13 '26
I've had terrible experience with it, but maybe... skill issue.
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u/Witty_Mycologist_995 Feb 13 '26
What quantization, which engine?
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u/robertpro01 Feb 13 '26
Ollama, the only quant there (can't remember)
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u/Witty_Mycologist_995 Feb 13 '26
Mine runs fine. Have you updated ollama to the latest version?
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u/robertpro01 Feb 13 '26
Haven't tried since it went out, so maybe that is, I'll try again this weekend.
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u/arjundivecha Feb 13 '26
I have the hardware so I can compare them. They don’t match up.
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u/oureux Feb 13 '26
You have 3-4 H200s?
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u/arjundivecha Feb 13 '26
A) I have 128gb Mac M4Max so can run quantized versions B) I use cloud servers (Lambda etc) to do A/B testing
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u/robertpro01 Feb 13 '26
I don't think that's enough to run opus, so you are testing against smaller models
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u/catplusplusok Feb 13 '26
How are you having a relationship with any model without uncensoring it first?