Can Mac mini M2 24 GB run Reflection Beam (501B-A23B)?
24 GB unified · 100 GB/s memory bandwidth · Reflection Beam (501B-A23B) has 501B parameters (23B active per token).
Short answer
No. It doesn't fit in memory.
Needs ≈265 GB but only ≈17 GB is available after the OS, other apps and Open WebUI.
Why it doesn’t fit
Even its smallest practical version (MXFP4) needs about 265 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 M2 24 GB has about 17 GB left, so it’s 249 GB short.
Ways to make it work
Close everything else
Not enough on its own: with every other app closed it’s still about 246 GB short.
Pick a smaller model from the same family
No smaller Beam model in our catalog runs well here. See the other models below.
Get more memory
You’d want at least 273 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 M2 24 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 M2 24 GB
The best-rated models for chat on this machine.
- gpt-oss-20b25–30 tok/sExcellent
- MiniCPM5 2B25–30 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3.5 4B19–25 tok/sExcellent
- Llama 3.2 3B Instruct20–30 tok/sExcellent
- LFM2.5 24B-A2B40–50 tok/sComfortable
- Gemma 4 26B-A4B20–30 tok/sComfortable
Cheapest machines for Reflection Beam (501B-A23B)
Hardware rated comfortable or better for chat, lowest price first.
Different tool, context size or workload?
These pages use typical settings. The full check models your exact setup.