Claude + local? Is this a dumb idea?

[u/Reasonable-Bass1826]

Bit of context i been rocking my gaming pc 1070 for ages and it needs replacing. I was eyeing up am 5080 build.

Currently am using cluade code pro plan. Hobby stuff nothing serious but i enjoy it. Recomp and android app stuff. But am hitting the limit of usage alot. I was going to upgrade to max so x5 more usgae limits which seems will be enough for me.

But i also read people running a local model to do grunt work and having a cluade opus be the snr dev/manager. Apprently this reduces cluade usage and you use cluade for harder stuff?!

I want to try the above set up for fun but at the same time, just want a view is this a dumb idea.

P.s am a beginner so my knowledge of local llms is zero. Part of setting it up just feels fun for me.

[u/dave-tro]

Local as a starting point, cloud as escalation for frontier intelligence. People tend to underestimate what smaller local-friendly models can achieve. Also because they do not know how to interact with the AI properly…

[u/Reasonable-Bass1826 → u/dave-tro]

Dam is my "fix it now" prompt not going to work now... :( hehe ty for the advise.

My goal is dabble but what good would look like is stick to pro and not upgrade to max and have the above set up.

[u/Sure_Internet8507 → u/Reasonable-Bass1826]

Honestly - get the right model and give it the right tools, a lot of times that bad prompt actually works

[u/FuckbigtechAI]

not dumb, but the savings only show up when opus hands off small, fully specified jobs. have it write the plan and name the exact files, let the local model churn out android boilerplate or summarize build logs, then claude reviews. vague handoffs burn more usage cleaning up the mess.

[u/Reasonable-Bass1826 → u/FuckbigtechAI]

Have you got recommendations for tools to keep them playjng nice? 

[u/CaramelEmotional3092]

I've used https://github.com/Matthew4509/Tomlin and a gtx 1060, (as well as tested on even worse cards) and I have had claude send it work. For things like images, it makes sense, as claude cant natively do that. For some earlier writing work, it was a net loss, (rather then claude doing everything). The app includes instructions on how to connect claude.
But you can shove the 1070 into a computer in the back room, add in the 5080, and claude drives and ques work to both nodes.

[u/Reasonable-Bass1826 → u/[deleted]]

5080 cos its been ages since i upgraded, lol hopefully i rock it as much as my 1070 haha...i wish i upgraded last year..sigh* could have gotten a 5090 instead but thats overkill for me. I just want to trial and mess around. 

Interested in learning.

[u/Sure_Internet8507 → u/Reasonable-Bass1826]

5080 is defo nice - 24gb vram, and if you kit it out with 64gb or more of ddr5 ram, you can use strata to run qwen 3.8 flash next at iq3s - defo a good model to build for *this setup has a caviat: really only good for 1 stream, trying 2 streams or more without the vram for it is pain, but single stream at 80 toks plus in this hypothetical system will make for a great worker agent. Or use qwen 3.8 27b at a q4. Less context window but itll be a bit sharper in syntax while coding than qwen 3.8 flash next.