Speculative Decoding: The Free Speed Toggle Your Local LLM Is Probably Not Using
Software & Tools Speculative Decoding, Explained: The Free Speed Toggle Your Local LLM Is Probably Not Using A draft model guesses, the big model verifies in one parallel pass, and the output is provably identical. How speculative decoding works, the 2026 MTP shift, and the measured case where it makes things slower. Thomas Newkirk July 25, 2026 7 min read There is a setting in LM Studio and llama.cpp that can make a local model generate 1.5 to 2.5 times faster without changing a single word of its output.
- ▪Software & Tools Speculative Decoding, Explained: The Free Speed Toggle Your Local LLM Is Probably Not Using A draft model guesses, the big model verifies in one parallel pass, and the output is provably identical.
- ▪How speculative decoding works, the 2026 MTP shift, and the measured case where it makes things slower.
- ▪Thomas Newkirk July 25, 2026 7 min read There is a setting in LM Studio and llama.cpp that can make a local model generate 1.5 to 2.5 times faster without changing a single word of its output.
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Software & Tools Speculative Decoding, Explained: The Free Speed Toggle Your Local LLM Is Probably Not Using A draft model guesses, the big model verifies in one parallel pass, and the output is provably identical. How speculative decoding works, the 2026 MTP shift, and the measured case where it makes things slower. Thomas Newkirk July 25, 2026 7 min read There is a setting in LM Studio and llama.cpp that can make a local model generate 1.5 to 2.5 times faster without changing a single word of its output. Not a lower quant, not a smaller model, the same model producing mathematically identical answers, faster. Most people leave it off, and the people who turn it on often pair it wrong and make things slower.
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