Can MacBook Pro M3 Max 48 GB run Mistral Small 4 (119B-A6.5B)?
48 GB unified · 400 GB/s memory bandwidth · Mistral Small 4 (119B-A6.5B) has 119.4B parameters (6.5B active per token).
Short answer
No. It doesn't fit in memory.
Needs ≈50 GB but only ≈39 GB is available after the OS, other apps and Open WebUI.
Why it doesn’t fit
Even its smallest practical version (3-bit) needs about 50 GB for the model, its context memory and the runtime. After macOS (≈4.8 GB), a browser with a few tabs (≈3.0 GB) and Open WebUI (≈1.0 GB), MacBook Pro M3 Max 48 GB has about 39 GB left, so it’s 11 GB short.
Ways to make it work
Close everything else
Not enough on its own: with every other app closed it’s still about 8.0 GB short.
Pick a smaller model from the same family
Get more memory
The same chip with 128 GB handles it: Excellent.
Check your exact setup
These pages assume typical settings. A shorter context or a lighter chat app can change the answer.
Check MacBook Pro M3 Max 48 GB
The same applies to every workload we rate (chat, coding questions, coding in a repository, agentic coding and long documents): they all need at least as much memory as chat.
Other models for MacBook Pro M3 Max 48 GB
The best-rated models for chat on this machine.
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B85–120 tok/sExcellent
- Gemma 4 26B-A4B55–80 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B85–120 tok/sExcellent
- LFM2.5 24B-A2B140–190 tok/sExcellent
- gpt-oss-20b85–110 tok/sExcellent
- GLM-4.7-Flash (30B-A3B)70–95 tok/sExcellent
Cheapest machines for Mistral Small 4 (119B-A6.5B)
Hardware rated comfortable or better for chat, lowest price first.
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PC / Framework Desktop · 128 GB$2,000 · 30–40 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M2 Max 96 GB$3,799 · 50–65 tok/sExcellent
- MacBook Pro M3 Max 96 GB$3,999 · 40–50 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M4 Max 128 GB$4,099 · 50–70 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M5 Max 128 GB$4,099 · 50–85 tok/sExcellent
- MacBook Pro M2 Max 96 GB$5,099 · 50–65 tok/sExcellent
Different tool, context size or workload?
These pages use typical settings. The full check models your exact setup.