How to Benchmark Local LLM Inference for Speed and Cost Efficiency

The text explores the benefits and challenges of running large language models (LLMs) locally, emphasizing the importance of data security and the potential for using AI with private datasets. It highlights the complexity of benchmarking LLM performance, likening it to SSD performance benchmarking due to the numerous variables involved, such as model architecture, size, and concurrent requests. Optimizing latency, reading speed, and GPU use are crucial for effective deployment, especially for chatbots. The author shares personal insights from testing various setups, including NVIDIA's NIMs, ollama, and high-end GPUs like the RTX 4090 and H100, and discusses the cost-effectiveness of these configurations. While impressed with NVIDIA's offerings, the author notes limitations in VRAM capacity and anticipates future improvements in model precision and quantization. The experiment underscores the ease of deploying LLMs on local infrastructure or through cloud options like Runpod, and invites feedback from those experienced in LLM optimization.