Ollama and MLX-VLM Accuracy Review (Qwen3-VL and Mistral Small 3.2)

I was running detail tests to compare accuracy for the same models (Qwen3-VL and Mistral Small 3.2) running on Ollama and MLX-VLM (recent 0.3.7 version). MLX-VLM runs faster, but with lower accuracy. The same is valid across different models.

 

Qwen3-VL Accuracy Differences on Ollama vs MLX

I run couple of tests with structured data extraction using newest Qwen3-VL model on Mac Mini M4 Pro with 64GB. I discovered the same Qwen3-VL model with the same level of quantantization performs differently on Ollama vs. MLX. It seems model conversion step is crucial and we must evaluate model performance on different platforms before going to production. 

 

Vision LLM with MLX: Extracting Electric Meter Data in Production

In this video, I share my experience using the MLX backend to run Vision LLM (with MLX-VLM) for structured data extraction in a production environment. See how I used Sparrow to accurately read electric meter data and learn practical tips for deploying similar solutions. 

 

Running Vision Models on Apple Silicon with MLX-VLM

I show and explain how to run Qwen and Mistral vision models on Apple Silicon with MLX-VLM. I share technical tips about how to run both models and show how to pass query prompt.

 

Apple MLX Vision LLM Server with Ngrok, FastAPI and Sparrow

I show how I run Apple MLX backend on my local Mac Mini M4 Pro 64GB and access it from the Web through Ngrok, with automatically provisioned HTTPS certificate. 

 

Sparrow Apple MLX Backend on Mac Mini M4 (Qwen2 72B 4bit)

I show how I’m running the Qwen2 72B 4bit model locally on a Mac Mini M4 for Sparrow’s backend. MLX (and MLX-VLM) is the main platform I’m using for local data extraction in Sparrow.