Tested ServiceNow's Apriel 1.6 15B Thinker on my RTX 5060 Ti -- and the thinking logs made me put my tea down.

This model runs a compliance check before it writes a Python function. Literally. "We need to comply with the request. No disallowed content." Enterprise
DNA, fully intact.

But buried inside that corporate throat-clearing is something genuinely impressive. Full breakdown on the blog -- link in comments.

#AI #LocalLLM #Ollama #HomeLabAI #ReasoningModel #ServiceNow #OpenSourceA

https://goarcherdynamics.com/2026/04/01/aihome-apriel-1-6-15b-thinker-review/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Tested Mistral Small 3.1 24B on my RTX 5060 Ti -- 14.4GB VRAM, 20 tokens/sec, and barely 1.6GB of breathing room left on the card.

Slow? Yes. Worth it? Surprisingly, yes.

The output quality has no business being this good on a model pressed against the VRAM ceiling. Badly wish I had a better card. This thing's good!
Full benchmark breakdown on the blog -- link in comments.

#AI #LocalLLM #Ollama #HomeLabAI #Mistral #OpenSourceAI

https://goarcherdynamics.com/2026/03/30/aihome-mistral-3-1-small-24b-review/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social