Pixtral 12B (2409) on Intel Atom C3538 / C3558 NAS (16 GB)

Can the Intel Atom C3538 / C3558 NAS (16 GB) run Pixtral 12B (2409)?

Barely: it runs very slowly (tight fit)

Very slow (tight fit). At Q5_K_M it needs about 11.7 GB of 12.0 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 0.7 tok/s.

Best quant: Q5_K_M
Generation speed: 0.7 tok/s
Prompt processing: 1.5 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 705.4 s
Largest safe context: 9K

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)

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

How it’s rated

Quality 48Fair quality (C) · 48 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q5_K_M, 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 Very slowtight fit: How well it runs on the Intel Atom C3538 / C3558 NAS (16 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.	21.8 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of the NAS’s memory that models can use (the rest stays with the NAS system and its storage services); fewer when it goes past that limit.	24.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.	1.9 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	15.0 / 15
Match score	62.7 / 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 Intel Atom C3538 / C3558 NAS (16 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	7.9 GB	12.0 GB	1.3 tok/s	Very slow	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`	9.0 GB	12.0 GB	1.0 tok/s	Very slow	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`	10.5 GB	12.0 GB	0.8 tok/s	Very slowtight fit	47Fair quality (C) · 47 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	11.7 GB	12.0 GB	0.7 tok/s	Very slowtight fit	48Fair quality (C) · 48 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	13.1 GB	12.0 GB	0.5 tok/s	Very slowover memory limit	49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 48/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	16.0 GB	12.0 GB	—	Won't run	50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 6/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	27.7 GB	12.0 GB	—	Won't run	50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 6/100 (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

50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Q8_0 · 41.7 tok/s · Runs great
50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Q8_0 · 47.2 tok/s · Runs great
50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Q8_0 · 50.8 tok/s · Runs great
49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Q6_K · 46.2 tok/s · Runs great
49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Q6_K · 50.6 tok/s · Runs great
49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Q6_K · 61.5 tok/s · Runs great

Quick answers

How much memory does Pixtral 12B (2409) need on the Intel Atom C3538 / C3558 NAS 16GB?

At Q5_K_M it needs about 11.7 GB. The Intel Atom C3538 / C3558 NAS 16GB has 12.0 GB usable.

How fast is Pixtral 12B (2409) on the Intel Atom C3538 / C3558 NAS 16GB?

About 0.7 tok/s at Q5_K_M, 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 Intel Atom C3538 / C3558 NAS 16GB?

Q5_K_M. 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.