GLM 5.3 Prime vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
GLM 5.3 Prime took 55 min 49 s and $3.43 at list price, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash took 9 min 16 s and $0.063 at list price. GLM 5.3 Prime took 6.0× as long and cost 54× as much.
GLM 5.3 Prime
Z.ai · $8.80/M out
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.
Some of the machines we work on were built before any of us were born. Patchbay is a three-person repair studio in Rotterdam, and what we do is simple to describe: we keep vintage synthesizers playing. A Minimoog that sat in an attic for thirty years. A Juno-60 with keys that no longer speak. A modular system that hums where it should roar. Whatever comes through our door gets opened up, traced through, and brought back.
That means rebuilding power supplies, cleaning a thousand key contacts, chasing a fault across three boards until it turns out to be a single cracked solder joint. It means calibrating oscillators that have drifted for decades, and listening — really listening — until a filter sounds the way it did the day it left the factory.
We do this because these instruments still sound like nothing else, and because somewhere a player is waiting to hear one come back to life.
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
| GLM 5.3 Prime | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | DeepSeek |
| Made in | China | China |
| Released | 23 Sep 2026 | 10 Sep 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $2.80 | $0.045 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $8.80 | $0.50 |
| Context | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | — | 1,482 |
| Time for the six prompts | 55 min 49 s | 9 min 16 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $3.43 | $0.063 |
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was cheaper: $3.36 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was faster: 46 min 33 s less in total, and faster on each of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play. GLM 5.3 Prime's landing page was cut off at the output limit (131,072 tokens).





