Can Mac mini M6 16 GB run Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B?
16 GB unified · 170 GB/s memory bandwidth · Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B has 74B parameters (9B active per token).
Short answer
No. It doesn't fit in memory.
Needs ≈40 GB but only ≈8.5 GB is available after the OS, other apps and Open WebUI.
Why it doesn’t fit
Even its smallest practical version (4-bit) needs about 40 GB for the model, its context memory and the runtime. After macOS (≈3.5 GB), a browser with a few tabs (≈3.0 GB) and Open WebUI (≈1.0 GB), Mac mini M6 16 GB has about 8.5 GB left, so it’s 32 GB short.
Ways to make it work
Close everything else
Not enough on its own: with every other app closed it’s still about 29 GB short.
Pick a smaller model from the same family
No smaller Nemotron 3.5 model in our catalog runs well here. See the other models below.
Get more memory
You’d want at least 48 GB of memory in total. The machines below are the cheapest that run it comfortably.
Check your exact setup
These pages assume typical settings. A shorter context or a lighter chat app can change the answer.
Check Mac mini M6 16 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 Mac mini M6 16 GB
The best-rated models for chat on this machine.
- MiniCPM5 2B30–50 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3.5 4B20–35 tok/sExcellent
- Llama 3.2 3B Instruct30–45 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3 8B16–25 tok/sExcellent
- Gemma 4 E4B18–30 tok/sExcellent
- DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B16–25 tok/sExcellent
Cheapest machines for Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B
Hardware rated comfortable or better for chat, lowest price first.
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PC / Framework Desktop · 64 GB$1,600 · 30–40 tok/sExcellent
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PC / Framework Desktop · 128 GB$2,000 · 30–40 tok/sExcellent
- Mac mini M4 Pro 64 GB$2,199 · 25–35 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M1 Max 64 GB$2,399 · 35–45 tok/sExcellent
- Mac mini M5 Pro 64 GB$2,499 · 20–35 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M2 Max 64 GB$2,599 · 35–45 tok/sExcellent
Different tool, context size or workload?
These pages use typical settings. The full check models your exact setup.