Ollama Now Runs Faster on Macs Thanks to Apple's MLX Framework - MacRumors
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Ollama Now Runs Faster on Macs Thanks to Apple's MLX Framework

Ollama, the popular app for running AI models locally on a computer, has released an update that takes advantage of Apple's own machine learning framework, MLX. The result is a hefty speed boost on Macs with Apple silicon.

ollama logo mac
According to Ollama, the new version processes prompts around 1.6 times faster (prefill speed) and nearly doubles the speed at which it generates responses (decode speed). Macs with M5-series chips are said to see the largest improvements, thanks to Apple's new GPU Neural Accelerators.

The update also includes smarter memory management, which should make AI-powered coding tools and chat assistants feel noticeably more responsive during extended use.

Ollama says the new performance boost should especially benefit macOS users who run personal assistants like OpenClaw or coding agents like Claude Code, OpenCode, or Codex.

The preview release is available to download as Ollama 0.19 – just make sure you have a Mac with more than 32GB of unified memory to run it. Support is currently limited to Alibaba's Qwen3.5, but Ollama says support for more AI models is planned.

Top Rated Comments

8 hours ago at 04:02 am

This is going to be some serious cash flow incoming for Apple in this year.
I think this could be a major business for Apple - it’s way cheaper for a small business to buy a powerful Mac and run qwen 3.5 than pay for an enterprise license for a frontier model - and you don’t need to worry about privacy issues.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
8 hours ago at 04:09 am
On device is definitely gonna be the future.

I can’t help but wonder if Apple looked ahead and foresaw this when developing the M series, or if they’ve lucked into it.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
9 hours ago at 03:27 am
This is going to be some serious cash flow incoming for Apple in this year.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Justin Cymbal Avatar
9 hours ago at 03:23 am
M-Series chips at work😎
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
7 hours ago at 05:26 am

rapid advancements do seem to be trickling into the LLMs much faster now.
Yes, but at the same time we're seeing that the hyperbole about AIs abilities is just that, hyperbole. Even the absolute top of the line stuff can't do what people thought would be easy within current generation stuff, and we're seeing limitations as far as training material.

In some contexts everything looks absolutely over the top amazing with that hockey stick curve of progress, but we're also seeing hard limits being hit way before we're even close to where things needs to be for practical everyday use.

As an example we have your positive experience of using it for spam filtering, which we need to put into context that I got way better numbers more than two decades ago with a framework that I built around a very small core based on a bayesian filter, with less computing power than probably your earbuds have today (or even just a USB-C plug).

It's similar to how things were and are with the crypto bros. If you want to see the amazing progress, opportunities, and revolution, it truly is there to be seen. But once you step out of the bubble it won't follow you into everyday life. You can escape it. You can live without it being an essential part of your life. You can get better results without it. Like with your spam filter example; it's more amazing within-bubble, than as a generic, practical, everyday solution.

There's no strict b/w hard line separating that inside and outside of the bubble, but things need to mature to a very high degree before it is a valid strictly better solution also outside the bubble. Which we can see in how most people in the world never ever would benefit from taking the plunge to making bitcoin and AI spamfilters their primary tools within their separate areas.

If you're into new tech the progress is amazing, but in everyday life where things just need to work it stops being about theoretical and occasional peaks, and it starts to become about how many times daily you can accept it failing you by not being good enough.

How long will your custom AI spamfilter feel amazing when you're relying on emails to always work, but that filter always gets one out of every twenty emails wrong?!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kirkster Avatar
8 hours ago at 04:26 am
They are so far behind LM Studio. And only support for one model?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)