Can I Run Mistral Small 3.1 on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)?

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated March 17, 2025

Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB) — what it gives a model

Usable memory for models	192 GB
Memory bandwidth	819 GB/s
Form factor	Desktop
Operating system	macOS
Memory upgradeable	No — soldered

Mistral Small 3.1 on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB): memory by quantization

Quant	Memory needed	Fits 192 GB?	Max context	Est. speed	Download
F16	49.3 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~9.1 tok/s	47.2 GB
Q8_0	27.2 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~16.6 tok/s	25.1 GB
Q6_K	21.5 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~21 tok/s	19.4 GB
Q5_K_M	18.9 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~23.9 tok/s	16.7 GB
Q4_K_M	16.4 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~27.6 tok/s	14.2 GB
Q3_K_M	12.2 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~37.2 tok/s	10.1 GB
Q2_K	9.9 GB	✓ Yes	64K	~45.9 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 Studio M3 Ultra 256 GB limitations

• The largest single-box unified memory pool available, but at roughly half the memory bandwidth of a high-end discrete GPU — very large models load, then run slowly.
• Memory is soldered; the configuration chosen at purchase is permanent.

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.
• 256 GB unified memory at 819 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 Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)?

Yes, comfortably — Mistral Small 3.1 24B at Q8_0 needs about 27.2 GB of the 192 GB usable on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB), leaving ~164.8 GB spare and running at ~16.6 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 65,536 tokens of context.

Which quantization of Mistral Small 3.1 should I use on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)?

Q8_0 — it needs about 27.2 GB of the 192 GB available, downloads as roughly 25.1 GB, and runs at an estimated 16.6 tokens/sec with up to 64K of context.

What limits Mistral Small 3.1 on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 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

• Mistral Small 3.1 on RTX 4090 desktop
• Mistral Small 3.1 on RTX 5090 desktop
• Mistral Small 3.1 on RTX 3090 desktop
• Mistral Small 3.1 on Mac Studio M4 Max 64 GB

Other Models on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)

• Mistral Small 4 on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)
• Nemotron 3 Super on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)
• Nemotron 70B on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)
• Nemotron Cascade 2 on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 GB)
• OLMo 2 on Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256 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

• Best local LLMs for general assistant
• Best local LLMs for rag
• Best local LLMs for writing

Model & Tools

• Mistral Small 3.1 model page
• VRAM calculator
• Check your own hardware

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