RTX 5060 Ti 8GB can run Mistral Small 3.1 24B with a second card — cheaper than replacing the one you have

Mistral Small 3.1 24B at Q4_K_M needs 16.4 GB once weights, KV cache at 8K context and framework overhead are counted. RTX 5060 Ti 8GB offers 8 GB, leaving you 8.4 GB short. Your 8 GB plus this card's 16 GB clears the 16.4 GB this model needs, without replacing what you already own.

What to do

Add an RTX 4060 Ti 16GB alongside your current card

Your 8 GB plus this card's 16 GB clears the 16.4 GB this model needs, without replacing what you already own.

What it needs

2 free expansion slots
Check your power supply before ordering: this card needs a unit rated 410 W or better (165 W board power plus the rest of the system, with the 30% headroom a PSU needs to run efficiently and age well).
Assumes llama.cpp or Ollama, which split a model across mismatched cards. vLLM and other tensor-parallel servers generally require identical GPUs.

What we checked

Card VRAM: 16 GB against a 16.4 GB requirement
Board power: 165 W
PSU capacity unknown — flagged rather than assumed
Assumes llama.cpp or Ollama, which split a model across mismatched cards. vLLM and other tensor-parallel servers generally require identical GPUs.
The two cards have different VRAM (8 GB and 16 GB). llama.cpp will use the total, but layers are split by capacity, so the slower card sets the pace for the layers it holds.
Two cards raise the model size you can hold, not the speed. Decode still streams every active layer each token, so expect capacity, not throughput.

Other ways to get there

Replace your card with an RTX 3090 24GB (used) — 24 GB holds Mistral Small 3.1 24B at Q4_K_M outright, closing the 8.4 GB you are short by.
Move to Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PC, 128GB unified — 128 GB of unified memory leaves about 96 GB for a model after the OS takes its share, which holds Mistral Small 3.1 24B at Q4_K_M.
Rent a GPU by the hour instead — You want this daily, so renting is the way to try Mistral Small 3.1 24B before spending on hardware — not the long-run answer if the usage holds.

What we ruled out, and why

64GB DDR5 kit (2x32GB) — More memory would let this model load, but the parts of it living in system RAM have to travel over PCIe, so it would run at roughly 2.3-4.7 tok/s — slower than reading speed. More VRAM, not more RAM, is what this needs.
96GB DDR5 kit (2x48GB) — More memory would let this model load, but the parts of it living in system RAM have to travel over PCIe, so it would run at roughly 2.3-4.7 tok/s — slower than reading speed. More VRAM, not more RAM, is what this needs.
128GB DDR5 kit (4x32GB) — More memory would let this model load, but the parts of it living in system RAM have to travel over PCIe, so it would run at roughly 2.3-4.7 tok/s — slower than reading speed. More VRAM, not more RAM, is what this needs.

Market conditions: New GPU prices are far above MSRP because the memory on the board costs several times what it did in 2025. Relief is not expected before 2027-Q4. Source, checked 2026-08-26.

Check current price

RTX 4060 Ti 16GB — 16 GB VRAM · 165 W board power · 2 slots

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Cloud GPU links are referral links — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Your machine is not exactly this one. Run this for your exact setup — the form opens pre-filled with RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and Mistral Small 3.1 24B.

Questions people ask about this pairing

Can an RTX 5060 Ti 8GB run Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Not as it stands. Mistral Small 3.1 24B needs 16.4 GB at Q4_K_M and this machine has 8 GB available, a shortfall of 8.4 GB. Your 8 GB plus this card's 16 GB clears the 16.4 GB this model needs, without replacing what you already own.

Would more system RAM fix this?

More memory would let this model load, but the parts of it living in system RAM have to travel over PCIe, so it would run at roughly 2.3-4.7 tok/s — slower than reading speed. More VRAM, not more RAM, is what this needs.

What power supply do I need for this upgrade?

Check your power supply before ordering: this card needs a unit rated 410 W or better (165 W board power plus the rest of the system, with the 30% headroom a PSU needs to run efficiently and age well). That figure is the card's board power plus a typical system draw, with the 30% headroom a supply needs to run efficiently and age well — not the bare minimum it would boot at.

Should I wait for prices to come down?

New GPU prices are far above MSRP because the memory on the board costs several times what it did in 2025. Relief is not expected before 2027-Q4. The current estimate for relief is 2027-Q4. If you can run this some other way meanwhile, waiting is defensible; if you cannot, the part still does the job today.

Does a longer context change what Mistral Small 3.1 24B needs here?

Yes, and it is the figure people forget. The 16.4 GB above already includes the KV cache at 8K; that cache grows roughly linearly with context, so doubling the window adds real gigabytes rather than a rounding error. If you plan to work with long documents on RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, size for the context you will actually use, not the default.

Data behind this page last checked 2026-08-26.