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Spark is fun and cool, but it isn't some revolution. It's a different workflow, but not suitable for everything that you're use GPT5.2 for with thinking set to

Spark is fun and cool, but it isn't some revolution. It's a different workflow, but not suitable for everything that you're use GPT5.2 for with thinking set to high, for example, it's way more dumb and makes more mistakes, while 5.2 will carefully thread through a large codebase and spend 40 minutes just to validate the change actually didn't break anything, as long as you provide prompts for it. Spark on the other hand is a bit faster at reaching a point when it says "Done!", even when there is lots more it could do. The context size is also very limiting, you need to really divide and conquer your tasks, otherwise it'll gather files and context, then start editing one file, trigger the automatic context compaction, then forget what it was doing and begin again, repeating tons of time and essentially making you wait 20 minutes for the change anyways. Personally I keep codex GPT5.2 as the everyday model, because most of the stuff I do I only want to do once, and I want it to 100% follow my prompt to the letter. I've played around a bunch with spark this week, and been fun as it's way faster, but also completely different way of working, more hands-on, and still not as good as even the gpt-codex models. Personally I wouldn't get ChatGPT Pro only for Spark (but I would get it for the Pro mode in ChatGPT, doesn't seem to get better than that).

bluegatty 9mo ago
Spark is the 'same model and harness' but on Cerebras. Your intuition may be deceiving you, maybe assuming it's a speed/quality trade-off, it's not. It's just faster hardware. No IQ tradeoff. If you toy around with Cerebras directly, you get a feel for it. Edit: see note below, I'm wrong. Not same model.
- striking 9mo ago
  > Today, we’re releasing a research preview of GPT‑5.3‑Codex‑Spark, a smaller version of GPT‑5.3‑Codex, and our first model designed for real-time coding. from https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-3-codex-spark/ https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-3-codex-spark/, emphasis mine
  - bluegatty 9mo ago
    You're right. It's funny because I kind of noticed that, but with all of these subtle model issues, I'm so used to being distraught by the smallest thing I've had to learn to 'trust the data' aka the charts, model standings, performance, etc. and in this case, I was under the assumption 'it was the same model' clearly it's not. Which is a bummer because it would be nice to try a true side-by-side analysis.
    - embedding-shape 9mo ago
      > It's funny because I kind of noticed that It's less funny when you consider that you were very confident about it, yet now it seems you haven't even bothered to run the model yourself, as you'd notice how different the quality of responses were, not just the speed. Kind of makes me ignore everything else you wrote too, because why would that be correct when you surely haven't validated that before writing it, and you got the basics wrong?
      - bluegatty 9mo ago
        What a snide and insulting comment - and plainly wrong. I literally stated 'I noticed that' - implying I'm using the model. I'm 'running the model' literally as I write this, I use it every day. What I was 'wrong' about was the very fine point that '5.3 Codex Spark' is a different model that '5.3 Codex' which is rather a fine point. I 'thought that I noticed something, but dismissed it' because I value the facts generally more than my intuition. I just so happened that I had that one fact wrong - 'Spark' is technically a different model, so it's not just 'a faster model', it will 'behave differently' , which lends credence to the individual I was responding to.

bluegatty 9mo ago

Spark is the 'same model and harness' but on Cerebras. Your intuition may be deceiving you, maybe assuming it's a speed/quality trade-off, it's not. It's just faster hardware. No IQ tradeoff. If you toy around with Cerebras directly, you get a feel for it. Edit: see note below, I'm wrong. Not same model.

striking 9mo ago
> Today, we’re releasing a research preview of GPT‑5.3‑Codex‑Spark, a smaller version of GPT‑5.3‑Codex, and our first model designed for real-time coding. from https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-3-codex-spark/ https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-3-codex-spark/, emphasis mine
- bluegatty 9mo ago
  You're right. It's funny because I kind of noticed that, but with all of these subtle model issues, I'm so used to being distraught by the smallest thing I've had to learn to 'trust the data' aka the charts, model standings, performance, etc. and in this case, I was under the assumption 'it was the same model' clearly it's not. Which is a bummer because it would be nice to try a true side-by-side analysis.
  - embedding-shape 9mo ago
    > It's funny because I kind of noticed that It's less funny when you consider that you were very confident about it, yet now it seems you haven't even bothered to run the model yourself, as you'd notice how different the quality of responses were, not just the speed. Kind of makes me ignore everything else you wrote too, because why would that be correct when you surely haven't validated that before writing it, and you got the basics wrong?
    - bluegatty 9mo ago
      What a snide and insulting comment - and plainly wrong. I literally stated 'I noticed that' - implying I'm using the model. I'm 'running the model' literally as I write this, I use it every day. What I was 'wrong' about was the very fine point that '5.3 Codex Spark' is a different model that '5.3 Codex' which is rather a fine point. I 'thought that I noticed something, but dismissed it' because I value the facts generally more than my intuition. I just so happened that I had that one fact wrong - 'Spark' is technically a different model, so it's not just 'a faster model', it will 'behave differently' , which lends credence to the individual I was responding to.