text model · Mistral · macOS
Can I run Ministral 3 8B on Apple M5 Pro (48GB)?
Yes. Ministral 3 8B runs on Apple M5 Pro (48GB) at Q4_K_M (~6.3 GB of ~32 GB usable).
Runs at Q4_K_M using ~6.3 GB of ~32 GB usable. You have room for FP16 for higher quality.
That figure is at a 4k context and moves about ±15% as context length changes. Apple M5 Pro (48GB) leaves ~25.7 GB of headroom, room to step up to FP16 for higher quality.
- Q4_K_M needed
- ~6.3 GB
- Usable on device
- ~32 GB
- Device memory
- 48 GB
- Best quant
- Q4_K_M
Which quant fits
Run it
Pick your tool. All 3 load the same Q4_K_M weights.
ollama run ministral-3:8b llama-cli -hf mistralai/Ministral-3-8B-Instruct-2512-GGUF:Q4_K_M lms get mistralai/Ministral-3-8B-Instruct-2512-GGUF - Parameters
- 8B
- Q4_K_M size
- 4.84 GB
- Q8_0 size
- 8.41 GB
- Context
- 256k
- Ollama tag
- ministral-3:8b
- Memory
- 48 GB unified
- Usable for weights
- ~32 GB
- Best runtime
- MLX direct / Ollama (MLX backend)
You could also run
Run Ministral 3 8B on other hardware
FAQ
Can Apple M5 Pro (48GB) run Ministral 3 8B?
Yes. Ministral 3 8B runs on Apple M5 Pro (48GB) at Q4_K_M (~6.3 GB of ~32 GB usable).
How much memory does Ministral 3 8B need?
Apple M5 Pro (48GB) has room to spare. At Q4_K_M the weights are ~4.84 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~6.3 GB at a 4k context.
What is the best tool to run Ministral 3 8B on macOS?
LM Studio for a simple setup; mlx-lm for the most speed. vLLM is NOT a Mac tool, it is a CUDA/Linux serving engine. Unified memory is not a fixed VRAM slice; ~70% is usable for weights.
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A live badge for your model card or README, updated as the data is. [](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/ministral-3-8b/apple-m5-pro-48gb) Sources
Weights are measured from GGUF files; KV cache and overhead are computed, so totals can vary ~15% with context and runtime. Any tok/s is a bandwidth estimate. See methodology.