Can the Apple M2 (8 GB) run Shieldstral 1.0 3B?

Yes, but slowly

Slow. At Q6_K it needs about 4.4 GB of 5.4 GB usable and makes one decision in about 940 ms.

Best quant: Q6_K
Time per decision: 940 ms
Decisions per second: 1.1/s
Input assumed: 512 tokens
Returns: Probability or score

Best app to run it on the Apple M2 (8 GB)

On macOS

Sentence Transformers

Python library · runs on PyTorch (Transformers)

A few lines of Python with Transformers or Sentence Transformers; easiest for scripts and notebooks.

Get Sentence Transformers

Docker Model Runner Handy if you already work in Docker.

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 Shieldstral 1.0 3B

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/mistralai/Shieldstral-1.0-3B (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 1 week ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 85Excellent quality (A+) · 85 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q6_K, 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 Slow: How well it runs on the Apple M2 (8 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.

PrecisionEditorial precision tier from the model’s published benchmarks, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	38.3 / 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
SpeedTime for one decision against a 100 ms target: reading the input plus any tokens the model writes.	4.9 / 15
ClarityHow easy the answer is to use in code: a probability or score earns the most, written feedback before a score the least.	15.0 / 15
Match score	83.2 / 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 M2 (8 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q4_K_M`	3.6 GB	5.4 GB	924 ms	Slow	81Great quality (A) · 81 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 81/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	4.0 GB	5.4 GB	931 ms	Slow	83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	4.4 GB	5.4 GB	940 ms	Slow	85Excellent quality (A+) · 85 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	5.3 GB	5.4 GB	959 ms	Slowtight fit	86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	8.9 GB	5.4 GB	—	Won't run	86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 11/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Times are for one request with a 512-token input and about 1 tokens written. Batching servers process many requests at once.

Other hardware that runs it

86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX F16 · 46 ms · Runs great
86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT F16 · 61 ms · Runs great
86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (128 GB) Q8_0 · 85 ms · Runs great
86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 F16 · 95 ms · Runs great
86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Q8_0 · 93 ms · Runs great
86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 93/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER F16 · 86 ms · Runs great

Quick answers

How much memory does Shieldstral 1.0 3B need on the M2 8GB?

At Q6_K it needs about 4.4 GB. The M2 8GB has 5.4 GB usable.

How fast is Shieldstral 1.0 3B on the M2 8GB?

It makes one decision in about 940 ms at Q6_K, an estimate from the hardware and the size of the model.

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.