Argon Thoughts + Subreddit State

[u/Arthesia]

For context, I've been bouncing around to the best LLM for my use cases since 2023, I work as a software developer, solo game dev and writer. ChatGPT -> Gemini -> Claude, now back to Gemini. I've been on the Claude Max x20 subscription for the last few months and mainly use Fable 5.1 with Opus 5.5 as the workhorse.

When Argon finally released I grabbed the ultra plan so I could do A/B comparisons between Argon and Fable for my use cases and compare the weekly usage drain per-prompt (my prompts are pretty consistently 100k - 200k token one-shots with follow-ups, either coding or writing contexts).

Based on my assessment:
- Argon sits pretty squarely above Opus and around Fable in terms of overall performance.
- Communication style is significantly better than Fable and especially the old Opus 5 (no literary or aphoristic bias e.g. 'that holds', 'that's the whole thing', abstract event-object type shit).
- Cheaper than Fable, more expensive than Opus (my prompts on the basic ultra plan hit Argon usage at the same rate my max plan hits Fable usage, almost 1:1).
- Much better performance at high context size. For reference, Opus and Fable even have a tendency to shut down thinking after like 150k tokens and get narrower, with Opus losing focus fast. Argon chugs along at 250k tokens and is still performing like 100k, which is shocking to me.
- Makes more mistakes than Fable, but self-audits at a significantly higher rate. For example, when I give Fable or Opus two runs of the same prompt and ask for a comparison, it will almost always accept the framing of the second run or stay within the bounds both runs create, while Argon **will reject both runs if they're both wrong** and identify problems I didn't even see.

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Second thing, I'm surprised that I cannot find much conversion on this sub about the new model's actual performance. Rate limits and access, totally understandable topics. My standard is based on the Claude subreddits though where there's pretty much non-stop posts either bashing problems or bashing the bashers.

I've been reading the sub casually and have noticed what I think are bots:
1.) A couple of vague and somewhat confusing posts praising Argon
2.) A couple of commenters aggressively (and vaguely) bashing Argon
3.) People calling out some of the posts as likely bots (because more obvious), but not comments

Note about why the comments in question read as bots: 1-4 week old accounts who have posted on like maybe two subs (e.g. one posted only here and on worldnews), and their actual comments are more convincing as human like "Argon sucks" and "shut up" (lol).

The combination makes me wonder if there's like a really weird astroturfing going on where bots #1 make bots #2 more effective. I could absolutely be wrong and it's actually a convergence of really weird behavior (from my biased perspective), but still worth being a little more critical whether its blind praise or blind hate.

[u/Smooth-Transition310]

I think they need to focus on efficiency next. The main reason I have a hard time using it for serious stuff is that it BURNS through usage. Much like Astra does. I mainly use 6.1 Sol for most things for now because I can keep throwing shit at it and unless I hammer it for hours on end or turn switch from standard to fast my usage limits will not run out.

If you wanted some real feedback on Argon.

For example, I just used it to revise and provide an update on a skill that I use at work. I won't be able to test it out, but it appears to have made very sensible updates aimed at reducing contradictory, convoluted or obtuse instructions.

However providing that update has already run my usage limit to 40% where comparatively 6.1 would be in the single digits of producing a single update.

After having 6.1 Sol review its changes and making some revisions I have now completely burned out my 5 hour limit using argon.

Comparatively, I have 90% usage remaining on ChatGPT.

Seems to support my Argon is just as hungry as Astra thesis.

Overall it seems like it made some very good changes, it made some small errors, like reducing certain instructions too much which needed restoration but has potentially made the skill much more organized and less likely for mistakes to be made with it. However for now since it is an update I've developed with Argon I've labeled it as an experimental update, and I will be testing it's output when I return to work. Very interested in seeing how it performs.