--- title: Show HN: Llmspeed – feel how fast a local LLM runs... description: A web tool lets users pick a hardware setup and an LLM model to simulate expected tokens-per-second and time-to-first-token before purchasing hardware for... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-llmspeed-feel-how-fast-a-local-llm-runs-before-you-buy-the-hardware-ortos33sm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Show HN: Llmspeed – feel how fast a local LLM runs before you buy the hardware | daily.dev og:description: A web tool lets users pick a hardware setup and an LLM model to simulate expected tokens-per-second and time-to-first-token before purchasing hardware for... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-llmspeed-feel-how-fast-a-local-llm-runs-before-you-buy-the-hardware-ortos33sm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ORTos33sm.png og:image:alt: Show HN: Llmspeed – feel how fast a local LLM runs before you buy the hardware og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Show HN: Llmspeed – feel how fast a local LLM runs before you buy the hardware **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A web tool lets users pick a hardware setup and an LLM model to simulate expected tokens-per-second and time-to-first-token before purchasing hardware for local LLM inference. Estimates are based on community benchmarks from sources like r/LocalLLaMA and localscore.ai, with some figures derived or projected from similar specs. The project is open source and available on GitHub. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How can I estimate LLM inference speed on a GPU before I buy it A tool called llmspeed lets you pick a hardware configuration and an LLM model to simulate expected tokens-per-second and time-to-first-token for a short prompt. Estimates draw on community benchmarks from sources like r/LocalLLaMA and localscore.ai, with unmeasured configurations derived or projected from similar specs. It covers GPUs, Macs, and other devices, and the project is open source on GitHub. _daily.dev surfaces tools like this for developers sizing hardware before a local LLM purchase._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 2 discussions and 41 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-10-17). **TL;DR:** People find the idea of simulating local LLM speed before buying hardware useful, but many report the current benchmark numbers feel off or too limited, and the discussion drifts heavily into personal hardware/setup tips for running local models well. **Sentiment:** 30% positive · 55% mixed · 15% skeptical **The case for** - Several found it a genuinely useful idea that they wished existed before they bought their own hardware. - The visual/simulated typing speed approach gives an intuitive feel for what different setups are like. **The pushback** - Multiple users reported the estimates didn't match their real-world throughput (e.g. M2 Ultra running faster than the listed M3 Ultra). - Benchmarks are seen as too narrow, missing hybrid/multi-GPU setups, older/budget GPUs, context-size effects, and inference engine/harness differences. - Model list and configuration options (quantization, speculative decoding, parallel inference, custom tok/s) are considered too limited. - Some felt it undersells what smaller/older hardware can actually achieve with the right models and tuning. **By community** - hackernews (mixed): Appreciation for the concept is mixed with detailed critiques of benchmark accuracy and missing configuration options, alongside a long tangent of people sharing their own local LLM hardware setups and tuning tips. **Hottest debate:** Whether these generalized benchmarks can capture real-world performance, given how much setup, quantization, context size, and harness choice affect actual speed. **Open questions** - How accurate are the simulated numbers compared to real hardware across diverse configurations? - Will hybrid/multi-GPU setups and older or budget cards be supported? - How will the tool account for context size, quantization, and speculative decoding effects on speed? **Highlights** > I don't know what basis these numbers are estimated on, but my M2 Ultra 128GB runs almost twice as fast as what's reported for the M3 Ultra 512GB. I wished there was such a tool before picking my hardware, it's useful. But the estimates needs to be somewhat correct. > — [pil0u on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50128532) > It would be great if numbers weren't off, would include optimised versions (ie. speculative decoding), context size, include allowed parallel inference (single agents use parallel inference a lot) etc. I don't think in general people care about long list of models, they just care about the best one. Also dual gpu is common setup, there should be ie. 2x 4090. > — [mirekrusin on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50129157) > I would like to see in such simulators: - multi GPU configuration (hetero and homo) - PCIe gen chooser (3.0/4.0/5.0) - is nvlink enabled (2 cards, 2 x 2 cards, 3 x 2 cards) - is PCIe bifurcated or CPU native (threadripper pro for example) > — [gitowiec on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50128915) > This is just a tok/s simulator. It displays the dummy text at appropriate speeds for configurations selected through buttons below the chatbox. > — [numpad0 on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50129743) > This is a great idea but I'm far less concerned about output token speed and way more about the ability to parallelize prefill - for agentic coding that's pretty much way more important than output speed. > — [friendly\_chap on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50128720) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50127979) · 100 points · 41 comments - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49492103) · 2 points · 0 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [tokenspeed — feel LLM tokens-per-second](https://daily.dev/posts/tokenspeed-feel-llm-tokens-per-second-wqp3nschy) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Local LLMs Are Getting Easier: The Complete Guide \(2026\)](https://daily.dev/posts/local-llms-are-getting-easier-the-complete-guide-2026--gaggzz9j2) · SitePoint · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Stop guessing which local AI models fit your hardware — this free tool does it for you](https://daily.dev/posts/stop-guessing-which-local-ai-models-fit-your-hardware-this-free-tool-does-it-for-you-g0pvmddqa) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The tokenomics of self-hosted LLMs](https://daily.dev/posts/the-tokenomics-of-self-hosted-llms-rmgohnaqs) · Red Hat Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#gpu](https://daily.dev/tags/gpu), [#ai-inference](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-inference), [#local-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/local-ai) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-llmspeed-feel-how-fast-a-local-llm-runs-before-you-buy-the-hardware-ortos33sm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Show HN: Llmspeed – feel how fast a local LLM runs before you buy the hardware","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-llmspeed-feel-how-fast-a-local-llm-runs-before-you-buy-the-hardware-ortos33sm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-llmspeed-feel-how-fast-a-local-llm-runs-before-you-buy-the-hardware-ortos33sm"},"datePublished":"2026-10-17T10:19:01.279Z","dateModified":"2026-10-17T12:04:35.193Z","description":"A web tool lets users pick a hardware setup and an LLM model to simulate expected tokens-per-second and time-to-first-token before purchasing hardware for...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/cef74e9c47cf13c8473900a4c97794da?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/cef74e9c47cf13c8473900a4c97794da?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-llmspeed-feel-how-fast-a-local-llm-runs-before-you-buy-the-hardware-ortos33sm","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"hardware,gpu,ai-inference,local-ai","timeRequired":"PT1M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Show HN: Llmspeed – feel how fast a local LLM runs before you buy the hardware"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/show-hn-llmspeed-feel-how-fast-a-local-llm-runs-before-you-buy-the-hardware-ortos33sm#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How can I estimate LLM inference speed on a GPU before I buy it","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A tool called llmspeed lets you pick a hardware configuration and an LLM model to simulate expected tokens-per-second and time-to-first-token for a short prompt. Estimates draw on community benchmarks from sources like r/LocalLLaMA and localscore.ai, with unmeasured configurations derived or projected from similar specs. It covers GPUs, Macs, and other devices, and the project is open source on GitHub. daily.dev surfaces tools like this for developers sizing hardware before a local LLM purchase."}}]} ```