MistralMixtral 8x7B Instruct on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
M3 Pro (18GB Unified) cannot run Mixtral 8x7B Instruct. 18 GB VRAM is insufficient at any quantization level.
Model Size
46.7B
Device VRAM
18 GB
Bandwidth
150 GB/s
Quantization
Q2_K
Performance by Quantization
OwnRig currently has one published compatibility entry for Mixtral 8x7B Instruct on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) at Q2_K. This pairing has limitations — check the rating and notes below.
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_K | – | – | ✗ Offload | Not viable | estimated |
Notes
Q2_K
MoE 16.4GB exceeds 14GB effective. Doesn't fit.
About Mixtral 8x7B Instruct
Mixtral 8x7B Instruct (46.7B) is a chat, coding, reasoning, multi-purpose model. Mixture-of-Experts model: 46.7B total params but only ~12.9B active per token. Quality closer to a 13B dense model with inference speed to match. Needs more VRAM for the full weight set though.
View all Mixtral 8x7B Instruct hardware options →About Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) has 18 GB at 150 GB/s. Available in MacBook Pro 14", MacBook Pro 16".
See all models Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) can run →Estimate method: MLX performance estimates. Reference hardware source: github.com (2026-03-15)
Performance varies by driver version, inference engine, quantization method, context length, and system configuration. Figures shown are estimates based on community benchmarks and may not reflect your exact setup. Product names are trademarks of their respective owners. OwnRig is independent and not affiliated with any hardware or AI model provider.