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Can the Apple M5 Ultra (256 GB) run Pixtral 12B (2409)?

50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 66/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At Q8_0 it needs about 30.4 GB of 192 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 52.1 tok/s.

Best quant
Q8_0
Generation speed
52.1 tok/s
Prompt processing
1,885 tok/s
First token (1K prompt)
0.5 s
Largest safe context
128K

Best app to run it on the Apple M5 Ultra (256 GB)

On macOS

Docker Model Runner

Command line + local API · runs on llama.cpp, vLLM

  • Handy if you already work in Docker.
docker model run hf.co/mistralai/Pixtral-12B-2409

How we choose: the files published for this model, your operating system and GPU, whether it fits fully in memory, and published speed tests (MLX vs llama.cpp on Apple silicon, vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama on NVIDIA). Details.

Download Pixtral 12B (2409)

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from Mistral AI, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/mistralai/Pixtral-12B-2409 (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 3 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 66/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.
How capable the model itself is at Q8_0, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Runs great
How well it runs on the Apple M5 Ultra (256 GB): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.22.5 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of unified memory the GPU can use; fewer when it goes past that limit.25.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.15.0 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.3.7 / 15
Match score66.2 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the Apple M5 Ultra (256 GB)

Quant Memory needed Available Speed Runs Quality Download
Q2_K 22.3 GB 192 GB 168 tok/s Runs great 35Basic quality (D) · 35 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 58/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
Q3_K_M 23.4 GB 192 GB 132 tok/s Runs great 42Fair quality (C) · 42 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
Q4_K_M 24.9 GB 192 GB 102 tok/s Runs great 47Fair quality (C) · 47 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
Q5_K_M 26.1 GB 192 GB 84.5 tok/s Runs great 48Fair quality (C) · 48 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
Q6_K 27.5 GB 192 GB 71.0 tok/s Runs great 49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 65/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
Q8_0 30.4 GB 192 GB 52.1 tok/s Runs great 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 66/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. All files (opens in a new tab)
F16 42.1 GB 192 GB 24.0 tok/s Runs well 50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

Quick answers

How much memory does Pixtral 12B (2409) need on the M5 Ultra 256GB?

At Q8_0 it needs about 30.4 GB. The M5 Ultra 256GB has 192 GB usable.

How fast is Pixtral 12B (2409) on the M5 Ultra 256GB?

About 52.1 tok/s at Q8_0, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Pixtral 12B (2409) should I use on the M5 Ultra 256GB?

Q8_0. Of the versions that fit, it is the one that runs best; when two run equally well, the check prefers the higher-rated one.

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.

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