Bigger context windows are the hype, but the payoff isn’t universal. A lively thread on LocalLLaMA asks whether context length changes outcomes for unrelated questions, with oss-gtp:20b used as the baseline in a hypothetical, session-isolated setup [1].
Context length reality: when it helps vs when it doesn’t — The discussion suggests that longer windows don’t automatically improve every short, recall-based prompt. New sessions stay isolated, so extra history mainly matters if the user expects continuity across turns [1].
Memorization geometry — A separate post highlights that deep sequence models tend to memorize in geometric ways, reminding us memory layout matters even before tool choice, and that how a prompt is structured can affect what sticks [2].
Long documents in practice — For 900+ pages of legal text, chatter points to extreme-context options like Unsloth and Qwen3-VL models with 1M context, but voices caveat speed, cost, and hallucination risk; chunking and careful prompting remain part of the playbook [3].
RAG and up-to-date knowledge — In OpenWebUI-driven workflows, with Chroma or similar retrievers, keeping a knowledge base fresh is fiddly: older versions linger, so teams juggle updates, versioning, and cleanup rather than relying on a bigger window alone [4].
Bottom line: context windows push usefulness in the right scenarios, but memory geometry, processing heft, and retrieval design often decide whether you gain precision or just baggage.
References
Does the context length setting have any relevance on a series of completely unrelated questions?
Discusses whether changing context length affects independent short queries, session isolation, and potential remnants in memory for local LLMs.
View sourceDeep sequence models tend to memorize geometrically
Paper claims deep sequence models memorize information geometrically; implications for LLM training, privacy, generalization, and leakage risks in large systems.
View sourceBest model for processing large legal contexts (900+ pages)
Post discusses model size, context window, and techniques for processing 900+ pages of legal text with minimal hallucinations in practice.
View sourceSpecific RAG use, what would you do?
Discusses auto-updating knowledge base, deleting older versions, and improving RAG workflows with OpenWebUI or alternatives
View source