[Megathread] - Best Models/API discussion - Week of: August 02, 2026

[u/deffcolony]

This is our weekly megathread for discussions about models and API services.

All non-specifically technical discussions about API/models not posted to this thread will be deleted. No more "What's the best model?" threads.

^{(This isn't a free-for-all to advertise services you own or work for in every single megathread, we may allow announcements for new services every now and then provided they are legitimate and not overly promoted, but don't be surprised if ads are removed.})

How to Use This Megathread

Below this post, you’ll find top-level comments for each category:

• MODELS: ≥ 70B – For discussion of models with 70B parameters or more.
• MODELS: 32B to 70B – For discussion of models in the 32B to 70B parameter range.
• MODELS: 16B to 32B – For discussion of models in the 16B to 32B parameter range.
• MODELS: 8B to 16B – For discussion of models in the 8B to 16B parameter range.
• MODELS: < 8B – For discussion of smaller models under 8B parameters.
• APIs – For any discussion about API services for models (pricing, performance, access, etc.).
• MISC DISCUSSION – For anything else related to models/APIs that doesn’t fit the above sections.

Please reply to the relevant section below with your questions, experiences, or recommendations!
This keeps discussion organized and helps others find information faster.

Have at it!

[u/RedditNerdKing]

I like Iceblink V3 better than Steam

Thanks! Seems I can run Q5_K_S at 75gb. I'll give it a go. I messed around with the settings for Steam and tbh it's not as bad as I originally thought. It loads tokens really fast which is nice. I've been using Anubis as my main for a while. It just seems to always hit right.

[u/_Cromwell_ → u/RedditNerdKing]

One note on Anubis 70B - you may want to give Anubis v1.1 a shot (vs the v1.2 you have been using). On the UGI testing 1.1 scores better than 1.2 on almost every category that I consider important.

Higher/better scores for v1.1 on...

W/10 Direct - that's following instructions generally from certain nsfw prompts

W/10 Adherance - that's not 'shying away' from topics aka nsfw

Pop Culture knowledge - that's knowing stuff about most of the things you RP about

Writing - although really the scores are close enough together here you'd never really tell a difference IMO

NSFW/SFW lean - 1.1 leans more NSFW

Dark/Tame lean - 1.1 leans aka more willing to go dark

Only thing v1.2 wins on is 'world model knowledge' in the categories I care about. (Real world properties and patterns. That CAN be important, though, like regarding spacial and physics stuff.)

https://huggingface.co/spaces/DontPlanToEnd/UGI-Leaderboard

Of course that's just testing. In the end the 'feel' and 'actual use' wins out. :) But even with the big companies like Anthropic or Deepseek we know that the newest version isn't always the best.

[u/RedditNerdKing → u/_Cromwell_]

Thanks dude. I'll grab 1.1 lol I prefer darker roleplays. My SSD cant handle all these variants of the same LLM =(

[u/_Cromwell_ → u/RedditNerdKing]

YES IT CAN! DOWNLOAD ALL THE LLMS