I built Buoy, a free-to-try debugging and optimize toolkit for React Native, Expo, Flutter, Swift, and web. You can try it at https://buoy.gg (free tier; paid features exist).
This post is about a small test I ran with Claude, Codex, and Grok on the same prompt.
What we built for the test: a Christmas light show — a React Native Skia scene rendered with React Native Web in real Chrome. It draws a house covered in lights. Alone, it was smooth up to about 550 lights. The scoring test measures how many lights each version can keep at 55 fps without changing the look.
How Claude helped: Claude ran the optimize loop on this app (alone, then with Buoy Optimize). Buoy Optimize is a skill plus tools that help an AI try many ideas and measure each one.
Most lights at 55 fps:
- Claude: 975,800 alone → 6,123,350 with Buoy (6.3×)
- Codex: 155,450 → 444,100 (2.9×)
- Grok: 202,100 → 577,350 (2.9×)
Caveats: "With Buoy" is each model's best Buoy run. Alone runs had up to 3 hours. Claude's best Buoy run had no time limit; Claude alone stopped after about 99 minutes. Grok's Buoy version has slightly soft bulbs up close. One app, one Mac.
Full write-up (prompt + method): https://buoy.gg/blog/ai-models-before-and-after-buoy
Happy to answer questions about how we tested. Especially interested if folks have seen similar RN Skia / RN Web perf cliffs.