Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1 on Apple M2 Max: Fits (Sep 2026)
Conditional memory judgement for one configuration. Change context, quant, or engine and the conclusion can change. Configuration used on this page: GGUF Q6_K (mradermacher), 8,192 cached tokens, 1 sequence, engine llama.cpp. Status: Likely fits. Software: Not verified..
Verdict on Apple M2 Max 64GB unified (MacBook Pro / Mac Studio)
Yes, run Q6_K. The calculator puts it at 36.9 GiB–38.0 GiB at 8,192 tokens, inside 54.0 GiB of usable unified memory (after the OS reserve). Q8_0 is the next step up and does not clear the bar (47.3 GiB–48.7 GiB).
With Q6_K, the longest context that still counts as a fit is about 32,768 tokens (the model's full 32,768-token window), one sequence, fp16 KV cache.
| GGUF quant | File weights | KV cache | Estimated total | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q8_0 | 46.2 GiB | 1.0 GiB | 47.3 GiB–48.7 GiB | Tight |
| Q6_K (recommended) | 35.7 GiB | 1.0 GiB | 36.9 GiB–38.0 GiB | Fits |
| Q5_K_M | 30.9 GiB | 1.0 GiB | 32.1 GiB–33.1 GiB | Comfortable |
| Q4_K_M | 26.5 GiB | 1.0 GiB | 27.6 GiB–28.6 GiB | Comfortable |
Engine llama.cpp, one sequence, fp16 KV. File weights are the published GGUF sizes in the catalog. Totals come from the same calculator that powers the tool below; they are estimates, not a measurement of this setup.
Fixed page configuration
GGUF Q6_K needs 36.9 GiB-38.0 GiB at 8,192 tokens against 54.00 GiB net on Apple M2 Max 64GB unified (MacBook Pro / Mac Studio). Q8_0 is tight or over budget.
- ModelMixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1
- HardwareApple M2 Max 64GB unified (MacBook Pro / Mac Studio)
- QuantizationGGUF Q6_K (mradermacher)
- Context length (cached tokens)8,192
- Engine
llama.cpp - Concurrent sequences1
- KV cache typefp16
Technical identifiers and share data
- Model
mixtral-8x7b-instruct-v0.1 - Hardware
apple-m2-max-64gb-unified - Quantization
gguf-q6_k - Share fragment for this identity
v2.eyJzY2hlbWFWZXJzaW9uIjoyLCJjYWxjdWxhdG9yVmVyc2lvbiI6IjAuMy4wIiwiZGF0YXNldFZlcnNpb24iOiIyMDI2LTEwLTAyLjEiLCJjb25maWciOnsibW9kZWxJZCI6Im1peHRyYWwtOHg3Yi1pbnN0cnVjdC12MC4xIiwiaGFyZHdhcmVJZCI6ImFwcGxlLW0yLW1heC02NGdiLXVuaWZpZWQiLCJkZXZpY2VDb3VudCI6MSwicXVhbnRpemF0aW9uSWQiOiJnZ3VmLXE2X2siLCJjb250ZXh0VG9rZW5zIjo4MTkyLCJjb25jdXJyZW50U2VxdWVuY2VzIjoxLCJlbmdpbmUiOiJsbGFtYS5jcHAiLCJrdlR5cGUiOiJmcDE2In19
Memory breakdown
- Weight artifact
- 35.74 GiB (38,380,817,824 bytes)
- Raw KV cache
- 1.00 GiB (1,073,741,824 bytes)
- Engine extras / workspace
- 0.13 GiB–1.28 GiB
- Total estimated demand
- 36.87 GiB–38.03 GiB
- Net calculator budget
- 54.00 GiB
- OS / display reserve
- 10.00 GiB
- Remaining vs net budget
- 15.97 GiB–17.13 GiB
38.03 GiB high estimate vs 54.00 GiB net
Enough memory does not mean this engine, quant, and OS will run. Support does not mean it will be fast.
Other published files on this device
Same model, device and context (8,192 tokens, 1 sequence, FP16 KV). Each row is one published weight-file set with its usual engine, sorted by memory.
| Quantization | Engine | Estimated memory | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| BF16 safetensors | vllm | 88.62 GiB–90.52 GiB | Does not fit |
| GGUF Q8_0 (mradermacher) | llama.cpp | 47.34 GiB–48.71 GiB | Tight fit |
| GGUF Q6_K (mradermacher) This page | llama.cpp | 36.87 GiB–38.03 GiB | Fits |
| GGUF Q5_K_M (mradermacher) | llama.cpp | 32.07 GiB–33.14 GiB | Runs comfortably |
| GGUF Q4_K_M (mradermacher) | llama.cpp | 27.62 GiB–28.59 GiB | Runs comfortably |
Assumptions that affect this result
- Requested context is within the recorded native window of 32768 tokens.
- Full-resident weight estimates use total parameters, including inactive MoE experts.
- This MoE lists 46702792704 total parameters and 12900000000 active parameters. Active-parameter compute is not used as the weight-residency figure.
- Weight bytes come from the selected weight files only, not from every file in the repository.
- Download file size is not peak GPU memory. Runtime layout, allocator padding, and KV are extra.
- Counted files: Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1.Q6_K.gguf.
- Context budget is the number of cached tokens per sequence (prompt plus reserved generation).
- Concurrent sequences share one model replica; weights are not multiplied by sequence count.
Related pages
Sources
- Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1 model card
- config.json — revision eba92302a2861cdc0098cc54bc9f17cb2c47eb61
- safetensors index — metadata.total_size=93405585408
- Artifact repo mradermacher/Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1-GGUF
- MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2023) tech specs — Apple M2 Max configurable to 64GB unified memory (32GB and 96GB are different SKUs).
Calculator
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