We present a systematic, empirical evaluation of five local large language model (LLM) runtimes on Apple Silicon: MLX, MLC-LLM, llama.cpp, Ollama, and PyTorch MPS. Experiments were conducted on a Mac Studio equipped with an M2 Ultra processor and 192 GB of unified memory. Using the Qwen-2.5 model family across prompts ranging from a few hundred to 100,000 tokens, we measure time-to-first-token. Apple Silicon has transformed Mac computers into surprisingly capable machines for running large language models locally. But with four generations now available—M1, M2, M3, and M4—which one actually delivers the best experience for local LLM inference? I’ve run extensive tests across all four chips using Llama 3.1, Mistral, and other popular models to give you real-world performance. Complete guide to running local LLMs on macOS with Apple Silicon: Ollama, MLX, LM Studio, and unified memory optimization. Get maximum performance from local LLMs on your Apple Silicon Mac. Complete optimization guide for M1, M2, and M3 chips. MLX and mlx-lm run open-weight models on Apple Silicon with Metal. Install, generate, chat, serve an API, quantize, and tune KV cache on Mac in 2026. Designed for Apple Silicon — Takes full advantage of unified memory, Metal, and now Neural Engine support on M5 chips. Often faster than llama.cpp on Mac — For certain model sizes and quantizations, MLX outperforms llama.cpp on Apple hardware. Abstract We present a systematic, empirical study of five local large- language-model (LLM) runtimes on Apple Silicon—MLX, MLC-LLM, llama.cpp, Ollama, and Complete guide to running local LLMs on Mac. Covers every Apple Silicon chip from M1 to M5 Max, which models fit, real performance numbers, and setup tools. MLX on Mac with Apple silicon lets AI researchers and developers experiment locally with the latest models and methods in a private environment. The open-source array framework leverages the unified memory architecture of Apple silicon, enabling anyone to run new inference and fine-tuning methods on. Run AI on Mac: Apple Silicon Guide for 2026 Complete guide to running AI locally on Mac with Apple Silicon. Ollama setup, MLX framework, M5 hardware advice, Llama 4 support, and model recommendations.