o3-mini vs Deepseek-R1
o3-mini and DeepSeek R1 represent two different approaches to AI model architectures, each with its strengths.
o3-mini employs a dense transformer architecture, which is more traditional and ensures that every input token utilizes all the model's parameters. While this approach guarantees robust performance across various tasks, it might not scale as efficiently when handling larger workloads. The entire model's parameters are engaged with each token, which can be resource-intensive for large-scale tasks.
On the other hand, DeepSeek R1 uses a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture. In this design, only a subset of the model’s parameters is activated for each token processed. Specifically, two out of sixteen experts are activated per token, which allows for more efficient use of resources, making it highly scalable for larger workloads. By activating a small subset of the total parameters at a time, DeepSeek R1 can handle complex tasks more effectively without consuming excessive computational resources.
Parameter | OpenAI o3-mini | DeepSeek R1 |
---|---|---|
Total Parameters | Est. around 200 billion | 671 billion |
Active Parameters/Token | Full dense | 37 billion |
Context Window | 200K tokens (100K max output) | 128K tokens |
Training Tokens | Not disclosed | 14.8 trillion |
Training Compute | Estimated 1.2 million A100-hours | 2.664 million H800 GPU hours |
Architecture | Dense Transformer | Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) + Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) |
Release Date | January/February 2025 | January 2025 |
Some Comparisons to Look Out for : Between o3 Mini and Deepseek R1
Q1 : Snake ball eater game
Prompt : Create a Snake Ball Eater game using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript ion a single html file, featuring a growing snake that eats balls, game over conditions, and a scoring system. Impressive visual design
o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
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Aspect | Deepseek R1 | o3 mini |
---|---|---|
Code Structure | - Uses a single main() function with recursive setTimeout for game loop. |
- Uses setInterval for the game loop, making it more straightforward. |
- Snake and food positions are tracked in pixel coordinates. | - Snake and food positions are tracked in grid coordinates (tile-based). | |
- Game logic and rendering are tightly coupled in updateGame() and drawGame() . |
- Game logic and rendering are separated into gameLoop() and draw() . |
|
Performance | - Recursive setTimeout may lead to slight delays or timing inconsistencies. |
- setInterval ensures consistent frame timing, improving performance. |
- Direct pixel-based rendering may be less efficient for larger grids. | - Tile-based rendering is more efficient and scalable for larger grids. | |
Features | - Neon-themed design with glowing effects for snake and food. | - Gradient background and simpler glowing effects for food. |
- Score display and game-over screen with a restart button. | - Score display and game-over screen with a restart button. | |
- Snake grows when eating food, and collision detection is implemented. | - Snake grows when eating food, and collision detection is implemented. | |
Design | - Modern neon aesthetic with gradient backgrounds and glowing borders. | - Radial gradient background with a simpler, cleaner design. |
- Snake segments have a gradient fill and glowing effect. | - Snake head and body are colored differently (bright green and dark green). | |
- Food is a glowing red ball with a shadow effect. | - Food is a glowing golden ball with a shadow effect. | |
Input Handling | - Uses arrow keys for direction changes. | - Supports both arrow keys and WASD for direction changes. |
- Prevents immediate reverse direction changes. | - Prevents immediate reverse direction changes. | |
Collision Detection | - Checks for wall collisions and self-collisions. | - Checks for wall collisions and self-collisions. |
Scalability | - Less scalable due to pixel-based coordinates and recursive setTimeout . |
- More scalable due to tile-based coordinates and setInterval . |
Ease of Modification | - Harder to modify due to tightly coupled logic and rendering. | - Easier to modify due to separated logic and rendering functions. |
Browser Compatibility | - Works in modern browsers with support for canvas and CSS gradients. |
- Works in modern browsers with support for canvas and CSS gradients. |
Q2 : Web Solar System Explorer
Prompt : Using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a single HTML file to create a simulation of the solar system. Pay extreme attention to the UI to make it as intuitive as possible. Ensure that every planet appears as a sphere and is labeled with its corresponding name.
o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
---|---|
Sample Functional Stack Selection and Functional Capabilities Comparison Between o3 Mini and DeepSeek
Feature | o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
---|---|---|
Coded by | o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
Background | Radial gradient (#000814 to #001d3d ) |
Solid black background (#000 ) |
Sun Style | Radial gradient (#ffdd00 to #ff9800 ) with shadow |
Radial gradient (#ffd700 to #ff8c00 ) with shadow |
Orbit Style | Dashed border (rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1) ) |
Solid border (rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1) ) |
Planet Animation | CSS @keyframes for rotation |
JavaScript requestAnimationFrame for dynamic rotation |
Planet Labels | Labels positioned below planets using CSS variables | Labels positioned below planets with fixed styling |
Speed Control | Not implemented | Slider input to control animation speed |
Planet Properties | Defined in a JavaScript array with size, orbit radius, duration, color | Defined in a JavaScript array with radius, color, orbit radius, speed |
3D Effect | Radial gradients for planets | Radial gradients for planets with transform-style: preserve-3d |
Q3 : Bouncing Ball Hexagon
Prompt : write a html css java script in single html file where every 5 seconds a new bouncing balls with different color appear within a hexagon, make sure to handle collisions detection properly. make the hexagon slowly rotate. make sure the balls stay within the square.
o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
---|---|
Q4 : Fully functional chess game
Prompt : Design a fully functional chess game using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a single html file, with a responsive board, drag-and-drop piece movement, legal move validation, and check/checkmate detection
o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
---|---|
I personally love how Deepseek R1 handles the moves and changes the role to black and white ❤️
Q5 : Designing a bouncing game
Prompt : Create an interactive bouncing ball game using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a single HTML file. The game should feature stunning animations, a controllable ball speed, and a slider brick. If the ball falls or goes down, the game is over.
o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
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Q6 : Ocean Strom
Prompt : Visually interesting shader that can run in twigl-dot-app make it like the ocean in a storm. using html, css, javascript in a single html file
o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
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Deepseek R1 couldn't catch the things even after 5 to 6 tries!😐
Q7 : 2D alien shooter game
Prompt : Create a simple 2D alien shooter game where the player controls a spaceship at the bottom of the screen, shooting upwards to defeat waves of aliens that move down the screen. The player should be able to move left and right, shoot bullets, and avoid colliding with aliens. The game should include a scoring system and an end game state when the player loses, using html, css, java script in a single file
o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
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Q8 : Pacman clone Pygame
Prompt : Pacman clone, A pacman clone made with python and pygame
o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
---|---|
Q9 : 2D City
Prompt : Build me an amazing, 2D large, organic and epic floating island city right above you with a ton of detail. Make it a goal, iterate, using html, css, javascript in single html file
o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
---|---|
Q10 : Crafting Monster Run Game
Prompt : Reproduce the monster run game using html, css, javascript in a single html file
o3 mini | Deepseek R1 |
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Benchmark performance of DeepSeek-R1
DeepSeek-R1, which incorporates multi-stage training and cold-start data before RL. DeepSeek-R1 achieves performance comparable to OpenAI-o1-1217 on reasoning tasks.
Codeforces Bench o3-mini
In competitive programming on Codeforces, OpenAI’s model o3-mini gets higher Elo scores when it uses more reasoning effort. It consistently performs better than the o1-mini. When it uses a medium level of reasoning effort, o3-mini matches o1’s performance.
GRPO x Deepseek-R1
Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) is an alternative reinforcement learning approach used in DeepSeek-R1-Zero to optimize the policy model without relying on a separate critic model. Instead of estimating value functions, GRPO computes the baseline using group scores.
Key Aspects of GRPO
Group Sampling:
- A group of outputs ({o_1, o_2, \dots, o_G}) is sampled from the old policy (\pi_{\theta_{old}}) for a given query (q).
Policy Optimization Objective:
- The policy (\pi_\theta) is updated by maximizing a clipped PPO-like objective: [ J_{GRPO}(\theta) = \frac{1}{G} \sum_{i=1}^{G} \min \left( \frac{\pi_\theta(o_i | q)}{\pi_{\theta_{old}}(o_i | q)} A_i, \text{clip} \left( \frac{\pi_\theta(o_i | q)}{\pi_{\theta_{old}}(o_i | q)}, 1 - \epsilon, 1 + \epsilon \right) A_i \right) - \beta D_{KL}(\pi_\theta || \pi_{ref}) ]
- This formulation prevents excessive updates by using a clipping mechanism.
KL Divergence Constraint:
- The Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence penalty ensures that the updated policy (\pi_\theta) does not deviate too much from a reference policy (\pi_{ref}).
Advantage Computation:
- Instead of using a critic, the advantage (A_i) is computed from the rewards of the sampled group: [ A_i = \frac{r_i - \text{mean}({r_1, r_2, \dots, r_G})}{\text{std}({r_1, r_2, \dots, r_G})} ]
- This normalizes the advantage values based on the group's performance.
By using GRPO, DeepSeek-R1-Zero reduces computational costs and eliminates the need for a separate critic model, making training more efficient.
Reproducing R1 ft.GRPOTrainer
To reproduce DeepSeek R1 using GRPOTrainer, follow the script provided in the link below:
📒GRPO Based Fine-tuning Script
Features Comparison
o3-mini Features
- Lightning Autocomplete: Median response time of 210ms, providing quick suggestions during coding sessions.
- IDE Plugin Integration: Supports a wide range of programming languages out of the box, making it versatile for various development environments.
- Security Scanning: Built-in capabilities to detect common vulnerabilities in code, enhancing security during development.
DeepSeek R1 Features
- Multi-Hop Debugging: Traces errors through multiple layers of code dependencies, effective for complex software systems.
- Contextual Code Completion: Provides longer and more relevant suggestions based on context, improving coding efficiency.
- Automated Refactoring: Automatically suggests improvements to legacy codebases, reducing technical debt significantly.
o3-mini vs DeepSeek R1 Pricing and Operational Costs
Cost Factor | o3-mini | DeepSeek R1 |
---|---|---|
API Cost (Input/Output) | $1.10/$4.40 per M | $0.55/$2.19 per M |
On-Prem Deployment | $3.80/hr (4xA100) | $4.20/hr (8xH100) |
Maintenance Overhead | 8% | 15% |
Limitations and Challenges
Limitation | o3-mini | DeepSeek R1 |
---|---|---|
Codebase Size | Struggles with codebases exceeding ~50k lines. | Requires substantial VRAM (64GB+) for optimal performance. |
Dependency Resolution | Lacks built-in dependency resolution. | Limited support for older programming languages (e.g., COBOL, Fortran). |
Multi-File Analysis | Limited multi-file analysis features. | Longer response time on initial queries due to architectural complexity. |
Papers about R1 & o3 mini
- DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning
Model | Paper |
---|---|
Deepseek R1 | Arxiv: 2501.12948 |
- o3-mini vs DeepSeek-R1: Which One is Safer?
Safety | Paper |
---|---|
O3-MINI VS DEEPSEEK-R1: Safety | Link to Paper |
The paper "O3-MINI VS DEEPSEEK-R1: Which One is Safer?" evaluates the safety of two large language models (LLMs): OpenAI's o3-mini and DeepSeek-R1. The authors employed their automated safety testing tool, ASTRAL, to generate and assess 1,260 unsafe test inputs across various categories, writing styles, and topics. The findings indicate that DeepSeek-R1 responded unsafely to 11.98% of the prompts, whereas o3-mini responded unsafely to only 1.19%. This suggests that, based on this assessment, DeepSeek-R1 is less aligned with human values and safety standards compared to o3-mini.
For a detailed comparison of the safety performance of both models, refer to the table below:
Model | Unsafe Responses (%) |
---|---|
DeepSeek-R1 | 11.98% |
o3-mini | 1.19% |
Conclusion: Choosing Between o3-mini and DeepSeek R1
The comparison between o3-mini and DeepSeek R1 highlights two distinct philosophies in AI model design, each excelling in specific scenarios. Here’s a distilled verdict based on their strengths and limitations:
Architectural Trade-offs
- o3-mini’s dense transformer architecture ensures consistent performance across diverse tasks, making it ideal for environments where reliability and security (e.g., vulnerability scanning) are critical. However, its resource-intensive nature limits scalability for massive workloads.
- DeepSeek R1 leverages MoE and RLHF to activate only a subset of parameters per token, achieving superior efficiency (37B active parameters vs. o3-mini’s 200B dense). This makes it better suited for large-scale, dynamic applications like real-time game development or multi-file codebases.
Performance Highlights
- Coding Tasks:
- o3-mini shines in structured tasks (e.g., chess game logic, IDE plugins) with cleaner code separation and tile-based rendering.
- DeepSeek R1 adopts visually rich designs (neon aesthetics, 3D effects) and supports advanced features like animation speed control, appealing to interactive applications.
- Benchmarks:
- DeepSeek R1 matches o3-mini in reasoning tasks (GRPO optimization) but lags in competitive programming (Codeforces Elo).
- o3-mini’s training compute (1.2M A100-hours) is half of R1’s (2.66M H800-hours), yet R1’s MoE design compensates with better token efficiency.
Operational Considerations
- Cost: DeepSeek R1 offers lower API costs ($0.55/$2.19 per M I/O) but demands higher VRAM for on-prem deployment.
- Scalability: R1’s MoE architecture future-proofs it for growing workloads, while o3-mini’s dense model faces hardware constraints.
Future Outlook
Both models target a 2025 release, with o3-mini focusing on security and IDE integration, while DeepSeek R1 emphasizes dynamic scalability and multi-hop debugging. As AI-driven development evolves, the choice hinges on priorities:
- Choose o3-mini for tasks requiring deterministic outputs, low maintenance, and embedded security.
- Opt for DeepSeek R1 for resource-efficient, visually complex applications demanding adaptive scalability.
End of the article... Thank you for reading.🤗