SilentSwarm or llama.cpp RPC?¶
If your machines are on a network you trust and you want to try this today, llama.cpp RPC has the fewest moving parts. Its own docs call it a fragile, insecure proof of concept. SilentSwarm is for running a shared pool on purpose.
Checked against llama.cpp RPC's own documentation on 2026-11-05. Projects change, so check their current pages too. "Not documented" means we did not find it in what we read, not that it does not exist. We have not run either project against the other, so this page has no speed comparison.
| llama.cpp RPC | SilentSwarm | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Offloading llama.cpp computation to devices on remote hosts | Serving and fine-tuning one model across mismatched machines you control |
| How a model is split | Weights and cache spread across devices by memory, adjustable with a flag | Contiguous layer stages, sized to each card's memory and speed |
| Hardware | The broadest here: CUDA, Metal, AMD through HIP or Vulkan, and CPU, mixed | Linux with NVIDIA GPUs |
| Fine-tuning | A separate proof of concept, not shown over RPC | LoRA fine-tuning across the same split |
| API and interface | OpenAI and Anthropic-compatible routes and a web interface, through llama-server |
OpenAI-compatible API and a web interface |
| Network | Trusted local network only. Its docs say never to run it on an open network | Workers connect out to your own coordinator: direct links where possible, its relay otherwise, across buildings and routers |
| Encryption between machines | None described | None of its own between machines. A WireGuard mesh encrypts traffic when it is up |
| Licence | MIT, open source | Source not public, terms agreed during the evaluation |
| Status | llama.cpp is very active; its RPC backend is labelled proof of concept | In pre-evaluation |
Where llama.cpp RPC is the better choice¶
- Fewest moving parts: one flag and no coordinator.
- Hardware and format breadth, with GGUF and many quantizations.
- RDMA on fast local links.
- Open source, under MIT.
Where SilentSwarm fits¶
- The machines are not on one trusted network.
- Several people share the pool, with accounts and scoped access.
- You want to fine-tune across the machines.
SilentSwarm has gaps of its own: no sandbox, and no encryption of its own between machines or at rest. Data and security lists them, and our benchmarks show what it does on old cards.
Sources¶
SilentSwarm is in pre-evaluation. We are looking for companies, institutions and individuals who want to try it on their own machines: Apply for the evaluation.