Local LLMs are actually good now, and I wasted months not realizing it
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A personal account of discovering that local LLMs have improved dramatically over the past couple of years. Running models like Qwen 3.5 9B on a mid-range gaming GPU (RTX 3070, 8GB VRAM) delivers 40-50 tokens per second, solid image analysis capabilities, and meaningful privacy benefits. The author debunks common assumptions about high hardware requirements, poor performance, and limited usability, arguing that local AI is now accessible enough for non-technical users to set up in an afternoon.
Table of contents
The hardware bar is lower than you thinkWhat a local LLM looks like in practice right nowThe privacy thing is actually a real benefitSort: