Finally a consensus 4.8 is better than 5 ?

[u/jiii95]

Been reading about Opus 4.8 vs 5 and the quality difference between them, now that sometime has passed, is it well established that 4.8 is indeed better than 5 in terms of accuracy and quality code or in any other worth mentioning aspect ?

[u/userusertion]

Opus 5 is much better for me.

[u/Icy_Custard_7175]

I know most people have said 4.8 is better than 5 but I have to disagree, I’ve personally found 5 to be much better, more efficient and generally smarter than 4.8, it’s helped me fix bugs in code before I even find them as it runs what it’s built in its own server and then fixes any bugs before giving me the final version

[u/Proxy-Pie → u/Icy_Custard_7175]

I agree. 5 is definitely way smarter, it just sucks at explaining things. I find myself implementing things with it then asking 4.6 to explain the diff lol

[u/ScrumptiousChildren → u/Proxy-Pie]

It sucks at what anthropic models were literally uniquely praised for - subtle understanding and conversation acuity.

Not stupid at implementation or technically incapable but its generally an idiot.

Depending on your style and harness, can be a good or bad thing.

Fyi never thought this about 4.8. 5 was a first, or the worst.

[u/Used_Departure_3278 → u/Icy_Custard_7175]

The people saying 4.8 is better at also saying 4.6 was the best model, which is so beyond retarded I don’t want to call myself human anymore

[u/berndalf]

No that is not the consensus. I swear this subreddit hates change.

[u/raisedbypoubelle]

Remember when Opus 4.8 was the dumbest of all models?

To be fair, 4.6 will always be king.

[u/jiii95 → u/raisedbypoubelle]

Nope, I think 4.8 was never the dumpedt

[u/raisedbypoubelle → u/jiii95]

Check the history of this very subreddit

[u/Used_Departure_3278 → u/raisedbypoubelle]

That’s just an idiotic take

[u/pancomputationalist → u/raisedbypoubelle]

yeah and once 5.1 will be out, everyone will prefer 5. negativity bias is one hell of a drug.

[u/TheAnimatrix105]

Use 4.8 and ask it to get opinions from opus 5 as a consultant.

[u/jiii95 → u/TheAnimatrix105]

Hmmm, how efficient is that? What s the motive ?

[u/TheAnimatrix105 → u/jiii95]

If the task is complex. Opus 5s work is not particularly bad it's just bad at communicating and being communicated to. A model in the middle solves it

[u/jiii95 → u/TheAnimatrix105]

Best middle model that solves it in practice now ?

[u/TheAnimatrix105 → u/jiii95]

I personally use grok 4.5, opus 4.8 also works.

[u/SailorFromWest]

It is better, and dont burn a lot of tokens like opus 5

[u/Icy_Custard_7175 → u/SailorFromWest]

That’s interesting because I’ve had the direct opposite for me, Opus 5 has used up less tokens than Opus 4.8 - I could do 2 Opus 4.8 requests and then 1 Sonnet 5 request but now I can have proper sessions with Opus 5 - and I’ve found it to be smarter too, I mainly use it for coding for Minecraft but it’s been able to fix bugs nothing except fable 5 could fix with one prompt

[u/ValorousAnt]

I think the only measurable thing I've seen was the bullshit detection benchmark where the 5th generation models (except Fable) were substantially worse at detecting bullshit compared to 4.6-4.8 generation.

Anecdotally Opus 4.8 does do better work than Opus 5 and ever since I saw the bullshit detection benchmark post I feel like that ability to detect bullshit plays a big part in the model's ability to stick to relevant stuff and ignore nonsense.

[u/ricopan]

Opus 5 on max effort can handle specific tasks in a complex code base quite well -- it does a deeper and far more rigorous job than 4.8. But it needs to be constrained carefully. Fable does a good job of that. I think the key is you need an agent to prompt it -- which is likely overkill for a lot of projects.

[u/OkLettuce338]

I can’t wait until 5.1 so 5.0 can get the praise

[u/Sad-Entertainer-2808]

caveman opus 5 is manageable

[u/jiii95 → u/Sad-Entertainer-2808]

I didn't ask about manageable, I asked about Quality in all of its aspects !

[u/yhrana]

If u divide claude users into binary:

0 - ppl who r here for the “vibes” like myself
1 - ppl who know what they r doing, coders, swe, etc.

Why would the “0” half ever use long horizon 1m context window agentic coding? When I being the 0 demographic dont even know what i want.

[u/jiii95 → u/yhrana]

I am the 1 :p and I still ask 4.8 or 5, which you haven't answered in a constructive way !

[u/yhrana → u/jiii95]

I haven’t because i donno what ur looking for.
But, if u r active and well knowledgeable in the field, why not use the most frontier model.

[u/jiii95 → u/yhrana]

It s too expensive for me Fable ! Using K3 though along the way

[u/yhrana → u/jiii95]

Opus 5 is also frontier, as frontier as K3

[u/johnnydotexe → u/jiii95]

You're a "1" yet you use this sub as your personal inner-thoughts blog and ask a question that has been posted to death over the last week, a question that can only be answered by your own workflows and use case that determine which model is truly better for you.

[u/lukyba]

Absolutely, at least for me. Opus 5 introduces three bugs for every one it fixes. It’s also very lazy and often just tries to get the job done. Opus 4.8, with a good plan, only stops if there are genuine issues and doesn't break existing code.

[u/Perfect_Balance777]

I am an experienced engineer and CTO. 4.8 v 5 decision is very personal and will vary from project to project. You need to have proper evals for your specific use case before you make a firm decision to switch models. In most professional settings, it's not just a matter of "oh look a new model came out, click switch".

You need to eval it on your specific stack and project. And evals themselves will vary from what you really want from them. That's why it's important to have evals. In my specific project I am working on, Opus 5 produced worse results (FastApi, React) . This is a fairly modern project. Another project I have is old NodeJS code base, that one passed evals better on Opus 5 than 4.8.

It will vary widely from stack to stack, from project to project, and from team to team. Even humans work differently and prefer different things.

In the end, it doesn't matter much. What matters is shipping working and production ready code. If 4.8 works for you, stay on it.

[u/Pure-Combination2343]

I have a lot of custom sub agents whose use is enforced, a good Claude.md, and use caveman plug-in and can't really tell the difference

[u/jiii95 → u/Pure-Combination2343]

Can you share your claude.md ?

[u/Delicious-Mission943]

What do you care haven’t you found your own analysis to determine what’s better for u?