A 70B model needs ~140GB VRAM in FP16, but 4-bit quantization shrinks it to ~35GB. With llama.cpp's partial CPU offloading, it can run on consumer hardware. GGUF naming conventions (Q4_K_M, Q5_K_S) tell you the precision-size tradeoff. KV cache is why long conversations slow down.
Unsloth is the fastest, most VRAM-efficient local LLM fine-tuning tool — 2× training speed and 70% less VRAM. In 2026 it added a Desktop app that bundles inference, training, image/video generation, web search, and agent integration into a complete local AI workstation.
llama.cpp is the most widely used local LLM inference engine, implemented in pure C/C++. It supports CPU, Metal, CUDA, Vulkan, and other backends, and uses the GGUF quantization format to run multi-billion-parameter models on consumer hardware.