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Hardware benchmarking, explained

Long-form guides on how, why, and when to test your computer. No fluff.

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Buying Guide

How Much VRAM Do You Need for Local LLMs in 2026? (Tested + Tabled)

Concrete VRAM requirements for Llama 3.3 70B, Qwen 2.5, Phi-4, Flux.1, HunyuanVideo. Tested tokens/s on 8/12/16/24/48 GB GPUs. The most-asked r/LocalLLaMA question, finally with calibrated numbers.

17 min read Apr 29
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Buying Guide

Run Local LLMs on 8 GB VRAM in 2026: The Honest Reality Check

RTX 4060 / 3060 / 3070 owners — what actually works on 8 GB? Calibrated tokens/s for Qwen 2.5 7B, Llama 3.3 8B, Flux.1-schnell, SDXL, plus what to avoid (and why --lowvram has real costs).

13 min read Apr 29
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Buying Guide

Best Laptop for Local AI 2026: M4 Max vs RTX 4090 Mobile vs Strix Halo

Three contenders for the best AI laptop in 2026. Apple M4 Max wins on battery + 70B capability, RTX 4090 Laptop wins raw speed, AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Strix Halo) is the new dark horse with 96 GB unified at half Apple's price.

16 min read Apr 29
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How-To

Can My PC Run It? Test Hardware for Games, AI & Apps in 15 Seconds

No download needed. Test if your PC can run modern games, local LLMs (Llama, Phi-3), Stable Diffusion XL, and productivity apps — all in your browser. Calibrated against 50+ GPUs.

14 min read Apr 29
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Buying Guide

Best GPU for Local LLM in 2026: Tested + Real Tokens/Second

Calibrated tokens/second benchmarks for 30+ GPUs running Llama 7B Q4. RTX 4090, 5090, 7900 XTX, M3 Max, M3 Ultra, used 3090 — honest tier breakdown.

16 min read Apr 29
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Comparisons

UserBenchmark Was Banned by r/Hardware — 5 Honest Alternatives 2026

Why r/hardware, r/pcmasterrace, and r/AMD all banned UserBenchmark. The 2019 scoring change explained, plus 5 actually-honest alternatives including AI-aware 9bench.

13 min read Apr 29
Deep Dive

Browser vs Native LLM: Why transformers.js Is 5-10× Slower Than llama.cpp

Honest measurements of LLM inference in browser vs native. Why WebAssembly + WebGPU is slower, when the browser is fast enough, what changes in 2026-2027.

14 min read Apr 29
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Hardware Testing

Test Your PC for Stable Diffusion XL in 15 Seconds (No Install)

Will your PC run SDXL? Test in your browser. Calibrated 1024² generation times for 30+ GPUs (RTX 4090, 4070, 3060, M3 Max, RX 7900 XTX) plus 8 GB VRAM workarounds.

13 min read Apr 29
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Comparisons

Apple M3 Max vs RTX 4090 for Local AI in 2026: Side-by-Side

Llama 7B, 70B, SDXL, fine-tuning — all benchmarked on M3 Max (64GB unified) vs RTX 4090 (24GB VRAM). Where each wins, where each loses, what to actually buy.

15 min read Apr 29
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Comparisons

UserBenchmark Alternatives 2026: Why It's Banned + What to Use

r/hardware and r/pcmasterrace banned UserBenchmark for documented anti-AMD bias. Here's the honest 2026 list of alternatives — what each does well, what they cost.

12 min read Apr 27
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How-To

How to Test Your CPU, GPU, and RAM Online (No Download)

Browser-based hardware tests in 2026 — how WebGPU, WebAssembly, and Web Workers let you benchmark without installing anything. Step-by-step guide.

11 min read Apr 27
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Comparisons

Geekbench vs Cinebench vs 9bench: Which Hardware Benchmark to Use?

Honest comparison of the top 3 PC benchmark tools. When to use Geekbench, when Cinebench, when a free browser-based 9bench is enough.

13 min read Apr 27
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Education

What Is GFLOPS? GPU Performance Explained for 2026

Giga-floating-point-operations-per-second — what it actually measures, how it relates to gaming/ML/video, and what counts as "fast" in 2026.

10 min read Apr 27
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Education

How Many CPU Cores Do You Actually Need in 2026?

Honest answer for gamers, creators, programmers, and office users. What 4/8/16/24-core actually delivers in 2026 workloads.

11 min read Apr 27
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Technical

Why Browser Benchmarks Score Lower Than Native (And Why That's Fine)

Web Crypto serialization, V8 vectorization limits, Worker thread pools — the structural reasons your browser benchmark differs from Geekbench.

9 min read Apr 27
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Pillar Guide

The Complete Guide to Online Hardware Benchmarking (2026)

Everything to know about testing your hardware in 2026: methodologies, tools, accuracy, privacy, and how the browser-based revolution changes the game.

18 min read Apr 27