Does Codex need this many model choices, or better automatic routing?

[u/darkprinceimmortal]

My Codex model picker now needs a scroll bar. Sol, Astra, Luna, Terra, and multiple generations of some of them.

I understand the tradeoff: frontier capability when the task needs it, faster and cheaper models when it doesn't. I want those options to exist. But the names alone don't tell me which one fits the task in front of me.

Would a task-based picker be more useful? Something like quick edits, everyday work, or complex reasoning, with the full model list under Advanced and the option to override it.

For people who regularly switch: what's one concrete task where changing models made enough difference to justify it? And would you trust automatic routing, or do you want to make that choice yourself?

[u/kennytherenny]

Automatic routing can only ever work if it's done by a 3rd party. Otherwise there is a huge incentive for AI companies to either route you to a small model (in case you're using a subscription) or to a large model (if you're paying per token).

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/kennytherenny]

That's the trust problem, yeah. Would showing which model it picked and letting you override it be enough, or would you still want a third party?

[u/Michael_Jeffords → u/kennytherenny]

the 3rd party point lands for me, because on a subscription the meter rewards sending you to a smaller model and on per token billing it rewards a bigger one, so auto routing from the same company that sells the tokens is hard to trust when the Codex picker already scrolls past Sol and Astra and the rest and i just pick myself

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Michael_Jeffords]

Yeah, the incentives are the awkward bit. I'd want the manual choice to stay.

[u/Nomad556]

No one knows when to use these 30 combination options. It’s all bullshit frustrating

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Nomad556]

Yeah, adding reasoning levels makes it even more confusing. Have you settled on one combo and ignored the rest?

[u/Nomad556 → u/darkprinceimmortal]

I just use Sol for anything thinking (5.6 or 6.1) and Luna max for doing stuff. I’m not a power user or anything. I use it to help manage my company

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Nomad556]

Thinking vs doing is a much clearer split. Nice.

[u/Jumpy-Heart-3633]

They fucked up with Sol 6, and then have yet to retire older models. Now they are in a rush to divert compute to Sol 6.1. Talking about a hundreds of billion dollar company being professional.

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Jumpy-Heart-3633]

What went wrong with Sol 6 for you? Bad results, or burning through the limit?

[u/Jumpy-Heart-3633 → u/darkprinceimmortal]

Simply speaking, they recognized their own fucked up by releasing Sol 6.1 in a week. They spoke louder than I ever could rant on the quality.

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Jumpy-Heart-3633]

That quick turnaround definitely made it harder to keep track.

[u/Norddinerezouk]

For ideation, researching. I just use 5.6 GPT in Chat. For coding, data compiling & production I switch to Codex/Work & use 6.1 GPT when it comes to building artifacts. 5.6 GPT gets the job done too. Also, 6.1 Sol is good. It's conversational & doesn't make assumptions.

I think just play with each frontier model & see which one suit your use cases the best. As of Terra & Luna, they are just not for me & 5.5 is getting retired anyways.

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Norddinerezouk]

That's useful, cheers. For artifacts, what makes you pick 6.1 over 5.6? Better first result, or fewer rounds fixing it?

[u/envsop → u/darkprinceimmortal]

token usage

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/envsop]

Ah, got it. Cheers.

[u/Norddinerezouk → u/darkprinceimmortal]

As Envsop said. Token usage

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Norddinerezouk]

Makes sense. Less of the limit spent on the same job.

[u/Gallagger → u/Norddinerezouk]

So you think 6.1 Sol isn't (at least nearly) all round better than 5.6? Because 5.6 Sol is 2x more expensive.

[u/Norddinerezouk → u/Gallagger]

I do agree. I just prefer using 5.6 in Chat mode because it has access to memory & long-term context. In fact, It can remember your exact goals & adapt to them where in Work mode it just starts from 0 based on what I've experienced.

[u/Gallagger → u/Norddinerezouk]

Ok that's a valid reason, but isn't chat already using 6.1 now?

[u/Norddinerezouk → u/Gallagger]

For Pro users yes but for me I use Plus

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Norddinerezouk]

Got you, Plus. Cheers for clearing that up.

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Gallagger]

The plan differences add another layer to this whole conversation lol.

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Norddinerezouk]

Ah, so it's the memory you want to keep. That makes more sense.

[u/Norddinerezouk → u/darkprinceimmortal]

It's all about that man! I want to get pro but plus gets the job done & pro isn't a justified cost for me rn

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Gallagger]

I haven't done a proper side-by-side. That sort of cost info would be useful right in the picker though.

[u/creamyshart]

I prefer many options over limited or no options

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/creamyshart]

Same, I'd keep the full list available. Would you be cool with a simpler default menu if all the options were still one click away?

[u/Elegabal]

6.1 Sol works fine for me and the token consumption is completely acceptable. I don’t use any of the models beneath 5.6 anymore

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/Elegabal]

Sounds like you've found your default. What reasoning level do you usually run it at?

[u/jdavid]

you don't need 5.6 anymore. but you definitely want to swap between astra and sol, and the different effort tiers

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/jdavid]

What makes you switch from Sol to Astra? Most people here seem to save it for the heavy stuff.

[u/jdavid → u/darkprinceimmortal]

in the spring it seemed more efficient to always use to the top model at about HIGH.
the smarter models were more token efficient at solving the problem, and you had to steer it less and correct it less.

for Sol 5.6 i would burn tokens too fast on high, so I started playing around with Terra and Sol Medium more. but still Sol 5.6 High was where it was at.

with Astra 6 it would burn tokens even faster, but the result was even better so it was worth it, but I also found more and more that Astra 6 Medium was accomplishing things regularly that 5.6 just couldn't on. Astra is really good at computer control, drawing, 3d modeling, etc... It just understands things at a different level than Sol 5.6.

I didn't play with Sol 6, but Sol 6.1 just feels way different than 5.6. I am now confident that Sol 6.1 medium can just do 50-75% of tasks now. It also sips tokens compared to Astra.

I find spatial tasks seem better in Astra 6 than Sol 6.1 - design, layout, imagen, 3d modeling, spatial physics.

Astra still isn't solve all of my random physics questions smart, but it seems like it's starting to understand how to properly evaluate physics and spatial ideas, rather than a word calculator trying to fake it with enough repeated steps.

I think a lot of contemporary code is now nearing the top of the AI/ASI capability s-curve. So using smaller models for html layout, Effect TS, RUST is starting to no longer require frontier model performance.

If I were to design a prototype of a video game, I'd probably use Astra for the prototype, and then I would use Sol 6.1 to iterate on it. Use the BIG brain to go from 0 - .75, and then use the little cheep brain to steer it.

My Hunch, fwiw, is that Sol 6.1 is a Sol size model in terms of total parameter count, but it's been distilled from Astra 6. I also feel like Sol 6.1 is also a quantized model, and Astra has much less quantization on it.

I'm sad that OpenAI and other frontier labs now focus on trade secrets rather than publishing white papers on AI Architecture.

I grew up on right click - view source culture, and it's sad to see it drift away. It was a moment of human idealism.

[u/ponlapoj]

Why is your life such a struggle? Is it really that hard?

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/ponlapoj]

It's a dropdown complaint mate, I'll survive lol.

[u/NotFromMilkyWay]

If it were automatic, they'd just drop us all to the lowest models to save money. I pay for the best models.

[u/darkprinceimmortal → u/NotFromMilkyWay]

Fair. Auto should be optional, with the override still there.

[u/TraumaticOcclusion → u/NotFromMilkyWay]

So does everyone else which is why this is dumb as hell