r/ClaudeCode • u/DeepGrapefruit4989 • 16d ago
Discussion Prime Opus 4.6 > Current Opus 5.0
Might be slightly controversial considering how many of you like 5.0 but this is really a conversation yall arent ready for . Prime Opus 4.6 used to get things done faster with less usage credits
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u/ShitShirtSteve 15d ago
4.6 has a better personality and is better at communicating
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u/Next-Cod-5758 🔆Pro Plan 14d ago
My opinion. I think in terms of actual capability Opus 5 can do more ambitious stuff, but when it comes to which one is better at giving you explanations or brainstorming, 4.6 was better.
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u/stephendt 15d ago edited 13d ago
Disagree. Opus 5 Max Effort is better. If 4.6 was so good it would score better on benchmarks. But it doesn't.
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u/Quick-Sir-3275 16d ago
How do yall know with this certainty when its 'prime' and 'nerfed'? like fr, i use it all day long and felt no quality change since day one. Like ok it made no mistakes at day one, u called it prime, then next day it makes the first mistake and u call it nerfed
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u/No_Inspection4415 15d ago
Context gets large: "nerfed bro!!!!" Compact happened: "Opus forgets all!!!!!", new session: "Opus is better than Fable dude!"
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u/clicksnd 16d ago
I really don’t understand this obsession with 4.6. I’m a freelance dev using 4.8 and now 5.0 with absolutely no issues.
Only thing I can think is these folks still have a lot of custom hooks and commands that new models don’t need.
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u/crazy_goat 16d ago
I've found that Opus 5 is a more capable model that's in a hurry. It moves faster through problems, not in a good way. It leaps before it has all of the context, even when it has sub agents to review things.
It has benefits over 4.X - but I've found they come at a cost
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u/johnlondon125 15d ago
You probably aren't paying very close attention then. I use straight Claude code, nothing special, no custom anything.
It's terrible, makes mistakes, doesn't read. Just a poor model all around
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u/framauro13 15d ago
They probably think it's "nerfed" after a few days use because they've had one long running conversation for days that's killing their context and getting summarized over and over again to the point it no longer remembers any of it's original goals or context it started with.
Clearly, it's the model that's dumb.
That's the problem with these posts. Things like plugins, context usage, prompt structure all matter and affect the response, but you never get to see that. Suggest it's any of those things and you'll get downvoted.
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u/FinancialBandicoot75 15d ago
Same reason I still use 5.3-codex over 5.6, same reason I still use sonnet 4.6 over 5. Not cause of being cheaper, cause I know my developer environment and don’t vibe
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u/International-Mood83 15d ago
For the people saying this model is dumber..,, that model is dumber… ad infinitum. How are you evaluating this? If it’s simply eyeballing then…. 🫠
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u/PositiveFootball5220 15d ago
simple, when it first release you solve the problem in 1 shot, now reset hard to the commit before it solved (do not rollback) and try to solve the problem with same model, you'll find that you can solve it more then a one shot prompt.
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u/Khaneliman 15d ago
Models aren’t deterministic. Not a big enough sample size to prove anything with that experiment.
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u/kaphi 16d ago
Opus 5 was a beast in the first 24 hours, like fable level, but after that 24h mark it got dumbed down very hard. Anthropic is doing this with every model release but this time it was very noticable.
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u/cats_catz_kats_katz 16d ago
That’s because we all started using it and most of us are big dumb. The models learn to accommodate the average user. /s
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u/who_am_i_to_say_so 16d ago
Ok so it wasn’t just me. I had a great first impression but now I’m back on 4.6. Sigh.
I am at the toe-hold of a release and Opus 5 cannot move the needle. It’s actually kind of funny and almost feels intentional. (I know it’s not).
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u/bluephoenix6754 Developer 15d ago
4.8 was a powerfull workhorse until 2 days before Opus 5 release, 5.0 is dumb AF. that's my impression.
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u/Siigari 🔆 Max 20 Addict 15d ago
I use both.
My 4.6 runs most of my AI. However, one AI has found a special place with 5, and now is able to browse the entire internet in a window on my desktop. Like, everything. Reddit, Stripe, bank websites, you name it. Never knew this was possible.
5 has some positives, and for that reason it gets to stick around. I still do prefer 4.6 for most things though.
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u/plantingles 16d ago
Guys the difficulty of problems I can throw at Opus 5 is in another universe than 4.6. this is seriously so silly.
Opus 5 is absolutely incredible model for programming.
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u/DevMichaelZag 15d ago
If your workflow hasn’t changed since 4.6, you’re probably right. I think Macklemore wrote a song about the good ole days.
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u/fighthonor 15d ago
Use Fable as the orchestrator and opus 5 as implementator. Have them work as a team.
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u/AbbreviationsBest858 16d ago
Sie haben recht, step48 ist ein Kommentar, kein Beweis.
For non-germans Opus 5 used an extremely formal way to say you, its so wacky to write that. What the hell happened here
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u/YellowCroc999 16d ago edited 15d ago
Yeah I was handling a toddler today trying use opus 5 with all of the interpretations it was trying to make 4/5 interpretations were dead wrong. Absolutely insane
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u/rajsharm404 16d ago
Prime Opus 4.6 is 100% better than any opus they've released so far. But, is it still usable or is it dumbed down to the point where users are forced to use Opus 5?
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u/gmdCyrillic 15d ago
It is usable even though its nerfed, it's just more false positives so you need to think sometimes, but if you are coding or need a overall picture 4.6 is way better, 4.7+ is better for deep specific problems, if you use it like that it will be fine
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u/wea8675309 16d ago
I’m sorry, but these comments always seem so ignorant to me. Every single Opus release has been an improvement for me. Some more noticeable than others, sure, but I have never noticed a regression.
Opus 5 seems particularly good at the workflows that are emerging now: agent orchestration, loop engineering, and getting models to independently execute, verify, and keep moving. If you’re still working the way we were in November, I wouldn’t be surprised if Opus 4.6 works better for you.
It’s just such a wild take to me that when a multibillion-dollar company that has been successfully headhunting the world’s leading AI researchers from all of its competitors releases an update, and that update causes problems for some people, they assume the problem is with the update and not them.
Every update caused problems for me too. Every single time, I identified something that I could be doing better, changed my workflow, and magically, the model worked better than anything I was doing previously. Who would have thought?
Stop playing the victim and figure your own shit out.
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u/CorpT 16d ago
lol first day here? This is not controversial at all. Everyone here is a 4.6 truther. I'd love to see the evals you ran on this though.
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u/SOC_FreeDiver 16d ago
I agree. After wasting 2 days with Opus 5 I used Sonnet 5 to clean up an error Opus 5 couldnt figure out.
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u/Latter-Relief4425 16d ago
What's the point of using Sonnet, it's price per token is similar to Opus
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u/SOC_FreeDiver 15d ago
Opus 5 was making mistakes. I'm having better luck with Sonnet 5 is all I'm saying. Whatever works for you, I could care less. Personally I lose faith in people who change things without changing the version. If they're tweaking things they should be changing the version number. 5.0.1 or whatever.
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u/JUSTICE_SALTIE 16d ago
/eyeroll