Can I Run Mistral Small 3.1 on MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 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 96 GB usable on MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 GB), leaving ~68.8 GB spare and running at ~11.2 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 65,536 tokens of context.

Confidence: high · Recommended quantization: Q8_0 · Estimated speed: ~11.2 tok/s

MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 GB) — what it gives a model

Usable memory for models96 GB
Memory bandwidth546 GB/s
Form factorLaptop
Operating systemmacOS
Memory upgradeableNo — soldered

Mistral Small 3.1 on MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 GB): memory by quantization

QuantMemory neededFits 96 GB?Max contextEst. speedDownload
F1649.3 GB✓ Yes64K~6.1 tok/s47.2 GB
Q8_027.2 GB✓ Yes64K~11.2 tok/s25.1 GB
Q6_K21.5 GB✓ Yes64K~14.3 tok/s19.4 GB
Q5_K_M18.9 GB✓ Yes64K~16.4 tok/s16.7 GB
Q4_K_M16.4 GB✓ Yes64K~18.9 tok/s14.2 GB
Q3_K_M12.2 GB✓ Yes64K~25.7 tok/s10.1 GB
Q2_K9.9 GB✓ Yes64K~32.1 tok/s7.8 GB

What to watch out for

MacBook Pro M4 Max 128 GB limitations

Recommended setup

Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput

How these numbers are calculated

FAQ

Can I run Mistral Small 3.1 on MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 GB)?

Yes, comfortably — Mistral Small 3.1 24B at Q8_0 needs about 27.2 GB of the 96 GB usable on MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 GB), leaving ~68.8 GB spare and running at ~11.2 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 65,536 tokens of context.

Which quantization of Mistral Small 3.1 should I use on MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 GB)?

Q8_0 — it needs about 27.2 GB of the 96 GB available, downloads as roughly 25.1 GB, and runs at an estimated 11.2 tokens/sec with up to 64K of context.

What limits Mistral Small 3.1 on MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 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 MacBook Pro 16" (M4 Max, 128 GB)

Mistral Small 3.1 on GPUs

What This Model Is Good At

Model & Tools

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