It has partial gpu acceleration if you compile it with LLAMA_CUBLAS or LLAMA_CLBLAST

They really have come a long way since... A few weeks ago.

Using cublas with my 1080ti results in a 52% speedup compared to cpu-only. Vram usage is very minimal.

I'd see that as a benefit of llama.cpp - it's specifically designed to be usable on consumer hardware such as laptops, without professional GPUs.