BareMetalRT vs Ollama vs LM Studio
Three popular ways to run open-weight LLMs on your own machine — no cloud, no API keys. They're built for different hardware and different goals. Here's an honest side-by-side, including where Ollama and LM Studio are the better pick, so you land on the right one for your setup.
| BareMetalRT | Ollama | LM Studio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interface | Desktop app + OpenAI-compatible API | CLI + API | Desktop GUI + API |
| Platforms | Windows — native, no WSL | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| GPU / hardware | NVIDIA RTX only | NVIDIA, AMD, Apple, CPU | NVIDIA, AMD, Apple, CPU |
| Inference engine | NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM | llama.cpp | llama.cpp / Apple MLX |
| Speed on NVIDIA RTX | Fastest — TensorRT-LLM kernels | llama.cpp baseline | llama.cpp baseline |
| Split one model across machines | Yes — GPU fleet over standard networking | No | No |
| One-click air-gap + attestation | Yes | Manual | Manual |
| Built-in voice agent | Yes | No | No |
| Open source | Windows engine fork (Apache 2.0) | Yes — fully OSS | No — free, closed source |
| Price | Free for home use · paid Pro / Enterprise | Free (open source) | Free personal · paid Enterprise |
The honest short version: if you're on a Mac, an AMD GPU, or CPU-only, use Ollama or LM Studio — they run on hardware BareMetalRT doesn't support, and for single-machine local chat they're excellent and free. BareMetalRT is NVIDIA-only. Where it wins is a specific, common case: Windows on an NVIDIA RTX GPU, where you want the fastest inference, the ability to pool multiple GPUs across PCs, or a provable, attestable air-gap.
Choose Ollama if…
You live in the terminal, want the broadest hardware reach (Apple Silicon, AMD, CPU), or you're wiring a local model into scripts and other tools. Fully open source, dead simple, cross-platform.
Choose LM Studio if…
You want a polished GUI to browse, download, and chat with models on Mac, Windows, or Linux, across NVIDIA / AMD / Apple. The friendliest on-ramp for non-developers.
Choose BareMetalRT if…
You're on Windows with an NVIDIA RTX GPU and want maximum speed, want to cluster GPUs across machines to run bigger models, or need a true air-gap for regulated or private data.
Native Windows, no WSL
Most serious inference stacks assume Linux or a server. BareMetalRT runs TensorRT-LLM natively on Windows — one signed installer, no WSL, no Docker, no Linux VM.
Fastest path on NVIDIA
Ollama and LM Studio use llama.cpp. BareMetalRT uses NVIDIA's own TensorRT-LLM with 1,500+ hand-optimized CUDA kernels — typically 30–60% faster on the same RTX GPU.
Pool GPUs across machines
Split a single model across multiple consumer GPUs on separate PCs over standard networking — run models no single card can hold. No other consumer runtime does cross-machine clustering.
Private by architecture
One-click air-gap seals egress, and it's attestable. Our revenue doesn't depend on your data reaching our servers — so "it never leaves your box" is a structural fact, not a promise.