Mistral Large 4 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Mistral Large 4 took 51 min 22 s and $0.61 at list price, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash took 9 min 16 s and $0.063 at list price. Mistral Large 4 took 5.5× as long and cost 9.7× as much.
Mistral Large 4
Mistral · $2.10/M out · 4,680 HN pts
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek · $0.50/M out · 1,482 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay sits in a former warehouse on Rotterdam's northern edge, where the Maas meets the industrial harbour. Three of us work here—no more, no less—surrounded by oscilloscopes, desoldering stations, and the persistent hum of transformers. We repair vintage synthesizers. That is the whole business.
We are not a museum, and we are not a factory. Every Minimoog, ARP 2600, or Juno that crosses our bench receives the same stubborn attention: traced schematics, replaced capacitors, calibrated voltages, hours spent listening for the note that was never quite right. The machines arrive broken, silent, forgotten. They leave singing.
Rotterdam built its reputation on moving heavy things and keeping them moving. We apply the same pragmatism to circuits that predate us by forty years. If it made sound once, it can make sound again. That is the promise we keep, solder joint by solder joint.
Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam dedicated to the care, repair, and resurrection of vintage synthesizers. We started in a small workshop near the Maas, surrounded by oscillators, patch cables, and service manuals, because these instruments deserve more than dusty shelves and hasty fixes. Between us, we have decades of experience in electronics, sound design, and restoration, but we approach every machine with the same curiosity: listen first, trace the signal, understand the history, then bring it back to life. Whether it's a crackly filter, a dead voice card, a drifting oscillator, or a power supply that needs rebuilding, we work carefully, honestly, and with respect for original character. We also advise on maintenance, calibrate tuning and envelopes, and source hard-to-find parts when possible. At Patchbay, repair isn't just about making sound again. It's about keeping these instruments making music for decades to come.
Specs and numbers
| Mistral Large 4 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral | DeepSeek |
| Made in | France | China |
| Released | 6 Oct 2026 | 10 Sep 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.70 | $0.045 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $2.10 | $0.50 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 4,680 | 1,482 |
| Time for the six prompts | 51 min 22 s | 9 min 16 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.61 | $0.063 |
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was cheaper: $0.55 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was faster: 42 min 6 s less in total, and faster on 4 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Mistral Large 4's rebuild matched the screenshot at 46%; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Mistral Large 4's game passed 2 of 5 checks; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was not in it.





