// RUN โ€” FITS

Can the Apple M3 Max 128GB run Mistral Small v24.09?

Yes โ€” here's how fast and up to what context, with real measured numbers.

Mistral Small v24.09 on the Apple M3 Max 128GB

QuantFits?Max contextSpeedBeyond context
FP16 yes 266k 6.2-7.5 t/s ~0.2-0.2 (slow)
Q8 yes 350k 12.4-14.9 t/s ~0.3-0.4 (slow)
Q4 yes 387k 22.1-26.6 t/s ~0.6-0.7 (slow)

Estimate (memory-bound). Beyond "max context" the KV cache spills to SSD swap and speed drops to the "beyond" figure.

FAQ

Can the Apple M3 Max 128GB run Mistral Small v24.09?โ–ถ

Yes. At Q4 it generates ~22.1-26.6 tok/s and fits up to 387k context; beyond that it spills to SSD swap and slows to ~0.6-0.7 tok/s.

How much context fits?โ–ถ

At Q4, up to about 387k tokens stay in fast memory; longer context spills to SSD swap and throughput collapses.