Local LLMs in 2026: What Actually Works on Consumer Hardware

Short summary

Local LLMs are now production-grade on consumer hardware: CPU-only setups hit 10-25 tokens/sec on 14B models, RTX 4090s reach 30-80 tokens/sec, and Apple Silicon delivers 25-40 tokens/sec. Start with Qwen 3 14B via Ollama and scale to llama.cpp or vLLM as load demands grow.

• •Qwen 3 14B is the recommended default local model for 2026 with broad capability
• •Hardware sweet spots: CPU-only (10-25 tok/s on 14B), RTX 4090 (30-80 tok/s), Apple Silicon (25-40 tok/s)
• •Ollama provides the easiest entry point; scale to llama.cpp or vLLM when you hit performance limits

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.