alt Hacker NewsPeople keep saying this but it's just patently not true, or at least not apples-to-apples. You can't seriously compare Qwen 3.8 27B to Fable or Astra. Even if local models get better, so will the frontier, and you'll always be at a disadvantage.
Unless you're talking about buying enough hardware to run something like GLM 5.3, in which case the math just doesn't pencil out—the break even point is several years, and you're stuck with hardware that will be outdated well before then.
There are plenty of good reasons to use local models, but none of them are financial, at least for the vast majority of users.
You don't need SOTA. You need a model that can accomplish your task. Qwen3.8-27B isn't comparable to SOTA, but can I use it and accomplish most of my tasks with? Yup.
The optimal move is to retain the minimal access to SOTA models on the $20 plan, and for anything your local model fails at, use SOTA as the backup for either planning or debugging.
This way you're not actually at any disadvantage in terms of capability. You also don't need an advantage, you need to complete the tasks you care about. Eyes on the prize.
RTX 3090 came out a long time ago and it may be 'outdated' at this point but still banging like a champ for anyone who bought one and becoming increasingly more capable as new models unlock it's potential. Hardware hasn't changed much, but what it can do certainly has.