MLX

MLX is Apple's open-source array framework for machine learning, built to exploit Apple Silicon's unified memory and Metal GPU. It's the fastest path to running and fine-tuning LLMs on a Mac, and it's why an M3 Ultra or M4 Max can deliver its full 546–819 GB/s of bandwidth to a model rather than leaving performance on the table. Tools like LM Studio use MLX builds on Apple hardware alongside GGUF. It only runs on Apple Silicon — there's no MLX on AMD or NVIDIA boxes.

If you buy a Mac for local AI, MLX is the reason it performs — prefer MLX-format models over generic GGUF where available. On AMD/NVIDIA boxes MLX is irrelevant; you're on llama.cpp or CUDA instead.