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Which Mac Studio Should You Buy for Running LLMs Locally?

You want to run large language models locally on a Mac Studio. Good idea - unified memory is genuinely useful for LLMs. But the specs matter, and there are some hard truths about what “works” versus what feels responsive. More importantly: the right Mac depends entirely on which model you want to run. Memory requirements: which model fits your Mac? Different models have wildly different memory demands. Here’s what you actually need for the top free models: ...

April 18, 2026 · 8 min · James M

Local AI vs Cloud AI: The Tradeoff Landscape in 2026

By early 2026, the “Local vs. Cloud” debate has moved past the experimental phase. We are no longer just “trying to see if Llama runs on a Mac.” Instead, professional engineers are building sophisticated Hybrid AI Stacks where local and cloud models work in tandem. The landscape has shifted because the hardware caught up to the software. With the prevalence of unified memory on Apple Silicon and the accessibility of 24GB+ VRAM cards like the RTX 50-series, the “local” ceiling has been smashed. ...

April 9, 2026 · 4 min · James M