Debate Erupts Over Whether DeepSeek Thinking Intensity Affects Performance

A blogger's max-setting benchmark of DeepSeek v4.1 flash sparked debate over whether thinking intensity affects performance. Citing the R1 paper showing Pass@1 jumping from 71% to 86.7% with longer reasoning, he defended using max for fair benchmarking and questioned whether reasoningeffort tiers are marketing.

2026-09-14 ~ 2026-09-15 · 4 related posts

• Blogger clashes over DeepSeek v4.1 flash thinking-strength settings, cites R1 paper — karminski3 · 2026-09-14
• Thinking intensity does boost capability: R1-Zero paper cited amid DeepSeek max-vs-high setting debate — karminski3 · 2026-09-14
• Blogger revisits DeepSeek R1's long-CoT lesson: reasoning budget drives accuracy from 71% to 86.7% — karminski3 · 2026-09-14
• Is reasoning_effort a marketing trick? DeepSeek benchmark-tier fight explained — karminski3 · 2026-09-15