Run BM25, Dense Retrieval, and SPLADE on a 16 GB MacBook: a RAG baseline checklist
The author reproduces three core retrieval baselines—BM25, dense retrieval, and SPLADE—on a consumer‑grade MacBook with 16 GB RAM, documenting out‑of‑memory crashes, native library failures, and API key hurdles that the official docs omit. Knowing how to run these baselines locally gives RAG developers a concrete quality reference before layering LLMs.