Can I Run Mistral Small 3.1 on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)?
Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated March 17, 2025
Yes — comfortably
Yes, comfortably — Mistral Small 3.1 24B at Q8_0 needs about 27.2 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB), leaving ~20.8 GB spare and running at ~5.7 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 65,536 tokens of context.
Confidence: high · Recommended quantization: Q8_0 · Estimated speed: ~5.7 tok/s
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Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB) — what it gives a model
| Usable memory for models | 48 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 273 GB/s |
| Form factor | Mini PC |
| Operating system | macOS |
| Memory upgradeable | No — soldered |
Mistral Small 3.1 on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB): memory by quantization
| Quant | Memory needed | Fits 48 GB? | Max context | Est. speed | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F16 | 49.3 GB | ✗ No | — | — | 47.2 GB |
| Q8_0 | 27.2 GB | ✓ Yes | 64K | ~5.7 tok/s | 25.1 GB |
| Q6_K | 21.5 GB | ✓ Yes | 64K | ~7.3 tok/s | 19.4 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 18.9 GB | ✓ Yes | 64K | ~8.4 tok/s | 16.7 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 16.4 GB | ✓ Yes | 64K | ~9.7 tok/s | 14.2 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 12.2 GB | ✓ Yes | 64K | ~13.4 tok/s | 10.1 GB |
| Q2_K | 9.9 GB | ✓ Yes | 64K | ~16.9 tok/s | 7.8 GB |
What to watch out for
- Memory on this machine is not upgradeable, so the configuration you buy is the ceiling for every model you will ever run on it.
Mac mini M4 Pro 64 GB limitations
- M4 Pro memory bandwidth is half the M4 Max's, so large models that fit will still generate roughly half as fast.
Recommended setup
Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput
How these numbers are calculated
- Memory need = quantized weights + KV cache at 8,192 tokens (f16) + 0.8 GB runtime overhead.
- 64 GB unified memory at 273 GB/s, shared between CPU and GPU.
- macOS reserves a share of unified memory for the system, so not all of it is available to a model.
- Throughput is a memory-bandwidth roofline estimate, not a measurement. It is labelled "estimated" everywhere it appears.
- KV cache is computed from this model's published attention configuration.
FAQ
Can I run Mistral Small 3.1 on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)?
Yes, comfortably — Mistral Small 3.1 24B at Q8_0 needs about 27.2 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB), leaving ~20.8 GB spare and running at ~5.7 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 65,536 tokens of context.
Which quantization of Mistral Small 3.1 should I use on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)?
Q8_0 — it needs about 27.2 GB of the 48 GB available, downloads as roughly 25.1 GB, and runs at an estimated 5.7 tokens/sec with up to 64K of context.
What limits Mistral Small 3.1 on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)?
Nothing binding — the model fits with headroom and generates at a usable speed on this hardware.
Which runtime should I use?
Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput
Other Computers
Other Models on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)
- Mistral Small 3.2 on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)
- Mistral Small 4 on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)
- Nemotron 3 Nano Omni on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)
- Nemotron 3 Super on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)
- Nemotron 70B on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)
Mistral Small 3.1 on GPUs
- Mistral Small 3.1 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
- Mistral Small 3.1 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
- Mistral Small 3.1 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
- Mistral Small 3.1 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070
What This Model Is Good At
Model & Tools
← Can I Run It? | Mistral Small 3.1 model page | Check your hardware