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by jnovek 20 days ago
I’ve been using DeepSeek V4 in OpenCode exclusively for about a month.

I think it’s great, but coming from Claude Code it did feel like going back in time by ~6 months in model capabilities. This isn’t a big deal to me for what I do, but the difference is definitely there.
2 comments
Leynos 20 days ago
Deepseek v4 Pro is like Opus 4.5 or GPT 5.2, but costs pennies on the pound for API. Which is to say, I should definitely be using it more to let my Codex and Claude subs go further.
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jnovek 20 days ago
Opus 4.5 was definitely stronger than DeepSeek V4 for me, specifically with large context.

I’m being pedantic/splitting hairs, though. I’ve obviously switched to DeepSeek full-time because it makes more sense to me pragmatically — I spend a few more tokens to get the outcome I want, but the tokens are cheap as dirt and the API is faster.

Perhaps I should plug it into Claude Code and see how it performs? I haven’t tried that.

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Leynos 18 days ago
Which harness do you use at the moment?
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rjh29 19 days ago
So my GPU comparison is pretty apt then. Paying 4-10x to be slightly ahead of the curve.
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jnovek 18 days ago
I think so, I think you’re getting downvoted because of how you’ve framed it. People don’t like it when you tell them that you think they’ve made a stupid purchase. :-P

I do think more expensive models are valuable in some cases. For example, I’ve noticed that Opus (even 4.7) is much better than DeepSeek V4 at noticing information with small amounts of representation in a large context history, you should pick Opus if you need to find needle(s) in a large haystack. I’ve never worked on a project with millions of lines of code, but I’m guessing it becomes relevant in those situations.

A big thing, too, is that it’s work to get a non-frontier coding stack setup. I’ve spent many hours of free time getting OpenCode to do what I want, but I enjoy it so it’s NBD. If you don’t like puttering around with your development tools, $100/mo for Claude Code really isn’t all that much and you can call it a day.

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rjh29 18 days ago
On your last point since DeepSeek v4 supports Claude Code's API you can literally set a few environment variables and continue to use Claude Code as a harness.

Like you say a combination of frontier and cheaper models is probably the optimum and that would require setup if you didn't want to choose models manually each time.

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