LLM Engineering •
Qwen3.8 27B VRAM: how to fit 262K context in 16 GiB, not 64
Qwen3.8 27B VRAM math: 25.9 GiB of FP8 weights plus 16 GiB of KV cache at 262,144 tokens, not 64. The arithmetic, and where a 48 GB card breaks.
9 min read
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LLM Engineering •
Fix slow LLM inference in macOS VMs: 12.6 → 207 tok/s
LLM inference in macOS VMs collapses to 12.63 tok/s because the guest reports GPU family 5 and llama.cpp drops its matrix kernels. The check, and its limits.
9 min read
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LLM Engineering •
How to Test an LLM's Knowledge Cutoff: Opus 5's May Claim Falls Short
Here's how to test an LLM's knowledge cutoff with three reproducible probes — the method showing Opus 5 claims May 2026 but answers like January 2026.
7 min read
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LLM Engineering •
vLLM throughput tuning: configure these four flags, not a bigger GPU
vLLM throughput tuning starts with KV cache blocks, not a bigger GPU. The four flags that decide your tokens/sec, and the one that quietly backfires.
10 min read
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LLM Engineering •
Reinforcement Fine-Tuning: When a 4B Model Beats GPT-5.6
Reinforcement fine-tuning let a 4B open model match GPT-5.6 Sol on retrieval at 100x lower cost. How RFT works, and when it beats prompting a frontier LLM.
10 min read
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LLM Engineering •
LLM Eval Framework: Grade Prompts, Models and Harnesses
An LLM eval framework turns vibes into scores. How smevals structures tasks, configs, runners and graders — and how to ship your first eval today.
10 min read
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LLM Engineering •
Run 70B LLM on 4GB GPU: AirLLM's Real Tradeoff
Run 70B LLM on 4GB GPU hardware with AirLLM's layer-by-layer inference. The VRAM math is real — you just pay for it in disk bandwidth. The honest tradeoff.
11 min read
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LLM Engineering •
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 Benchmarks: 13B Active Beats 1.6T
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 benchmarks: same 284B/13B architecture as the preview, re-post-trained only — and it beats the 1.6T V4-Pro Preview on nine agent tests.
9 min read
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LLM Engineering •
Claude Opus 5 Migration: The Two API Changes That Break Your Code
Two API changes break a Claude Opus 5 migration, and the effort parameter needs re-sweeping, not reusing. The fixes, the real cost math, and the benchmarks.
12 min read
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LLM Engineering •
Kimi K3 vs Claude Fable 5: When the Open Model Is Worth the Switch
Kimi K3 beats Claude Fable 5 on cost by a wide margin and loses on agentic tasks. The benchmarks that decide it, and how to run K3 where it actually wins.
6 min read
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LLM Engineering •
GPT-5.6 Sol vs Terra vs Luna: The Routing Strategy That Cuts Cost
GPT-5.6 Sol vs Terra vs Luna compared on price, coding, latency, and cost per task — plus a routing strategy that cuts your bill without wrecking quality.
5 min read
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LLM Engineering •
GPT-5.6 API: Pricing, Thinking Modes, and the Shared Context Trap
GPT-5.6 API pricing ($1–$30/1M), the Ultra and Max thinking modes, and a 1.05M context window that is shared — with the fine print that breaks agent loops.
10 min read
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LLM Engineering •
Claude Fable 5: Capabilities, Cost & When to Use It (2026)
Claude Fable 5 is Anthropic's most capable model yet. The honest deep-dive: capabilities, the $10/$50 cost math, API behavior, and when to use it.
12 min read
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LLM Engineering •
Claude Sonnet 5 for Coding: The Tokenizer Change That Moves Your Bill
Claude Sonnet 5 for coding lands near Opus level at Sonnet prices — until the tokenizer change moves your bill. The real cost math, and when it beats Opus 4.8.
8 min read
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LLM Engineering •
ChatGPT Adult Mode: Is It Live Yet? (Status Explained)
ChatGPT adult mode is still delayed — OpenAI's official status, what the feature would allow, why it was pushed back, and answers for parents.
7 min read
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LLM Engineering •
ChatGPT Interactive Math and Science Visuals: What to Know
ChatGPT interactive math and science visuals launched in March 2026: how the new learning modules work, who gets access, and why students benefit.
6 min read
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LLM Engineering •
GPT-5.4 for Agents: Computer Use, MCP Tool Calls, and Real Pricing
GPT-5.4's native computer use and MCP tool calls are the real upgrade for agents. What holds up in a loop, what the 1M context costs, and how Pro compares.
12 min read
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LLM Engineering •
OpenAI GPT-5.3 Instant: 26.8% Fewer Hallucinations, Reduced Refusals, and Better Web Answers
GPT-5.3 Instant brings 26.8% fewer hallucinations, fewer needless refusals, and better web-sourced answers — what changed and why it matters for devs.
10 min read
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LLM Engineering •
DeepSeek V4 vs US AI Models: Benchmarks, Architecture, and What It Means for the Industry
DeepSeek V4 is expected in early March 2026. Here is what is confirmed, what remains unverified, and how it challenges U.S. AI rivals.
10 min read
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LLM Engineering •
Seedance 2.0: The Two-Line Prompt That Broke Hollywood
ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 made a photorealistic Tom Cruise vs Brad Pitt fight from a two-line prompt — igniting Disney, Paramount, and SAG-AFTRA backlash.
13 min read
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