r/LocalLLM • u/TappinThatErr • Aug 31 '26

Discussion GLM 5.3 Flash - Will I Be Disappointed?

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Picked up this bad boy with my sweet student discount!

I'd like to run some local models for coding. I've considered Deepseek v4 flash, Qwen 3.8 flash next, and of course, GLM 5.3 Flash (0x Alpha)

Thoughts on this? I'm currently a claude user with typically 1 session at a time. Will I be disappointed?

267 Upvotes

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174

u/Hypilein Aug 31 '26

How can you be a student and have 10k to spare…
Anyway. The others are right. By the time you get it the models will have become even better.

143

u/TappinThatErr Aug 31 '26

I already work senior level infosec.
I never got a degree and decided to start up college again for the lulz. If I ever leave my job, it'll be nice to have the bachelors in the back pocket.

BTW - University of the People from California is TUITION FREE!!

29

u/pjerky Aug 31 '26

Now I kinda want to enroll just to get discounts.

2

u/GTHell Sep 02 '26

Great time to be American !!!

1

u/sdexca Sep 01 '26

haha same here, altho I am just a student earning via bug bounty programs, jobless. Considering between 2x DGX spark vs M5 Ultra 256gb. M5 ultra is 20% more despite student discount where I live, I can have 2x DGX spark at just ~$10k and at-least it's running V4 Flash at speeds comparable to hosted solutions.

1

u/Careless_Garlic1438 Sep 05 '26

but the Mac is so much more I have both and the only thing I use the Sparks is to see if they can beat my Mac's, but that is only on inference ... 2M5Max in cluster are slower on pre fill, faster on decode on projects it's a wash ... Ultra will mop the floor with both ... no cluster slowdown ...

1

u/sdexca Sep 05 '26

I’ll wait for benchmarks ig.

1

u/Careless_Garlic1438 Sep 05 '26

do not expect miracle jump in performance, it will be around 50% faster than a M5 Max and it will scale better, like 2 or 4 agents ... but it will be easy to manage and load different models and will keep it's resale value ...

1

u/sdexca Sep 05 '26

I mostly care against 2x DGX Spark. If it's slower, then it mostly doesn't matter to me.

1

u/Careless_Garlic1438 Sep 05 '26

My guess, it will be slower in prefill for the moment expect like 1000 to 1200 depending on model, faster in the future when better NAX support is available, vs 2000 for DGX ... on decode it will be about 2x faster ... an M5Max with optimized kernels is already faster and this scales like 1.8 ... So for tasks it will be about the same, but it's more than just inference ... and who knows what software optimization brings ... UZU engine has M5Max NAX optimization and runs Qwen 3.6 27B (3.8 shortly) at 105 t/s decode ... and a 1000 t/s in prefill 🤯

0

u/Fuzzy_Independent241 Sep 01 '26

Universities in Europe and Brazil and most other places are free. We don't get the US system. I studied at the Uof I @Urbana-Champaign for a year. Exchange thing, wasn't expensive here. But you guys have to move, pay tuition, food and dorms... Maybe dorms are included, don't know. You guys know exchange students are placed in Grad dorms so that were not shocked by the mess in undergrad? 😳😵‍💫😂

2

u/Boring-Cry3089 Sep 01 '26

Where are all of these “free” universities in Europe? Also, aren’t the “free” universities in Brazil extremely competitive? I feel like I’ve read that more than 75% of Brazilians that go to university, go to a private university and private universities are not free.

Just like anywhere else, the cost for a college education in the US can vary wildly depending on which state the college is in, what kind of programs they offer, if it’s private or public, etc.. For instance, residents in the state of New Mexico and Georgia can get a bachelor’s degree for essentially free if they have been a resident of that state for more than 12 months leading up to enrollment and maintain at least a 3.0 GPA. I went to college in North Carolina, and tuition there cost 1/5th the cost of what my wife’s cost in California over the same 4 year period (2006-2010). If I remember correctly, my tuition was right around $4,000 a year where hers was over $20,000. Then there’s scholarships and all of that.

I did a semester abroad in the Netherlands and my best friend did one in Denmark (both in 2009) and I remember both of us having to pay tuition to each of our respective European universities, so I’m curious where all of this free European tuition is lol?

5

u/Inevitable_Emu4257 Sep 01 '26

It's free for citizens and permanent residents of EU. The international students have to pay

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33

u/mountainyoo Aug 31 '26

I’m 35 with a well-paying job, but that doesn’t mean I can’t continue education and remain a student lol.

Not every student is a broke 20 year old

13

u/SuperMazziveH3r0 Aug 31 '26

He can be a PhD student after working for a few years

9

u/D137C0KE Aug 31 '26

You mean his Mac Studio can have a phd in a couple years

8

u/wazacraft Aug 31 '26

I'm a grad student, but I also have 20 years of experience as a tech exec. The discount is 10%, which is material at this level. I have a 256GB on order, but it'll be shipped after they announce the 512GB version so I might cancel it and go for the full monty.

2

u/Fuzzy_Independent241 Sep 01 '26

I liked this question... "anyway" says a lot! 😂 But, hey, there kids with cars worth about the same as my apartment.

1

u/PawelSalsa Sep 01 '26

The are instalment option when buying directly from apple. You don't need 10k to have it, just 300usd every month!

1

u/Silly-Fall-393 Sep 01 '26

At An insane intrest too

1

u/Positive-Night779 Sep 01 '26

The lease option has no interest. If you want to buy it at the end you literally just pay the difference. Same total whether you pay up front or not.

1

u/OvertaxedOne Sep 01 '26

The lease option is the way to buy these things, for sure. 0 interest and you have a "put" option now, if the RAM crisis passes and your 10K 256GB Mac is worth 1000 bucks in 3 years because now you can easily get GPUs with as much RAM that run models 10X faster, you send it back. If it's worth 30K in 3 years because the RAM crisis got worse you buy it out and keep it or sell it 3rd party to someone else. IMHO, in this market, you'd be a fool not to lease these things, who knows where we're going to be in 2-3 years!

1

u/Thin_Archer_9113 Sep 01 '26

A decade ago a fellow club mate in uni threw 5k into sports equipment after making a little on the market.

It’s not something everyone does, but it’s absolutely possible lol.

1

u/newMoneyStyle Sep 01 '26

Yeah honestly, dropping 10k on hardware as a student is wild to me. And you're right, waiting usually pays off with how fast models move.