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Model · Mistral AI

Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct: VRAM and hardware requirements

At Q4_K_M with an 8K context, Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct needs about 16.5 GB: a GPU with 20 GB or more runs it entirely in VRAM.

  • Parameters24B
  • Max context128K
  • LicenseApache-2.0

Specifications

Organization
Mistral AI
Architecture
mistral3
Released
June 2025
Layers
40
Hidden size
5120
Attention heads
32
KV heads
8
Head dimension
128
Vocabulary
131,072
KV cache per 1K tokens (f16)
0.156 GB

Official specData updated 24 days agoSource: Hugging Face config.json + model card

Quantizations and memory

Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct: memory by quantization at 8K context
QuantizationFile sizeMemory neededMinimum GPU memoryQuality
BF1643.9 GB~49.1 GB80 GBReference (unquantized)
Q8_023.3 GB~27.1 GB32 GBNear-lossless
Q6_K18 GB~21.4 GB24 GBNear-lossless
Q5_K_M15.6 GB~18.9 GB20 GBVery good
Q4_K_MMost used13.3 GB~16.5 GB20 GBGood — the usual choice
IQ4_XS11.9 GB~15.2 GB16 GBGood — the usual choice
Q3_K_M10.7 GB~13.9 GB16 GBNoticeable loss
Q2_K8.3 GB~11.4 GB12 GBSignificant loss

File sizes: not available until imported from the model repository. Memory = weights (estimated from bits per weight) + KV cache + runtime overhead + safety margin. (BF16 ≈ 16 bpw, Q8_0 ≈ 8.5 bpw, Q6_K ≈ 6.57 bpw, Q5_K_M ≈ 5.7 bpw, Q4_K_M ≈ 4.9 bpw, IQ4_XS ≈ 4.46 bpw, Q3_K_M ≈ 4 bpw, Q2_K ≈ 3.17 bpw)

Q4, Q5 or Q8: how to choose a quantization

GPUs that run Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct

Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct Q4_K_M · 8K context, one GPU
RTX 509032 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 76–108 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 409024 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 46–63 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 309024 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 43–59 tok/s estimateExcellent
RX 7900 XTX24 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.2 GB · 38–55 tok/s estimateExcellent
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB16 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 12–21 tok/s estimateCPU/GPU offload
RTX 5070 Ti16 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 17–31 tok/s estimateCPU/GPU offload
RTX 508016 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 18–32 tok/s estimateCPU/GPU offload
RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB16 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 9–15 tok/s estimateCPU/GPU offload
RTX 4070 Ti SUPER16 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 15–27 tok/s estimateCPU/GPU offload
RX 9070 XT16 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.2 GB · 13–24 tok/s estimateCPU/GPU offload
RTX 3060 12 GB12 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 4–7 tok/s estimateCPU/GPU offload
RTX 407012 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 4–7.5 tok/s estimateCPU/GPU offload
RTX 507012 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 4–8 tok/s estimateCPU/GPU offload
RTX 40608 GB · 64 GB RAM~16.1 GB · 2.5–4.5 tok/s estimatePossible but slow

Macs that run Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct

Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct Q4_K_M · 8K context
M3 Ultra (80-core GPU) · 512 GBMac Studio~15.9 GB · 32–50 tok/s estimateExcellent
M4 Max (40-core GPU) · 128 GBMacBook Pro 14, MacBook Pro 16~15.9 GB · 22–34 tok/s estimateExcellent
M3 Max (40-core GPU) · 128 GBMacBook Pro 14, MacBook Pro 16~15.9 GB · 17–25 tok/s estimateExcellent
M4 Pro (20-core GPU) · 64 GBMac mini, MacBook Pro 14~15.9 GB · 12–17 tok/s estimateExcellent
M4 Max (32-core GPU) · 36 GBMacBook Pro 14, MacBook Pro 16~15.9 GB · 17–25 tok/s estimateExcellent
M4 · 32 GBMacBook Air, MacBook Pro 14~15.9 GB · 5–7.5 tok/s estimateCompatible
M5 · 32 GBMacBook Pro 14~15.9 GB · 6.5–9.5 tok/s estimateCompatible
M3 · 24 GBMacBook Air, MacBook Pro 14~15.9 GB · 4.5–6 tok/s estimateCompatible with limits

EstimateData updated 24 days agoSource: Run LLM Locally engine

Limits in plain words

The KV cache grows with context: at 32K it adds about 5 GB on top of the weights.

With under 8 GB of VRAM, use a smaller quantization or a smaller model of the same family.

Where to buy

Prices and links follow the market you choose.

Radeon RX 7900 XT

AMD

ExcellentRuns Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct Q4_K_M entirely in memory

Price not available

Availability unknown

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AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395

Unified memory PC

ExcellentRuns Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct Q4_K_M entirely in memory

Price not available

Availability unknown

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Frequently asked questions

How much VRAM does Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct need?
About 16.5 GB at Q4_K_M with an 8K context, including the KV cache and runtime overhead. At Q8_0 it needs about 27.1 GB. A longer context adds more: about 5 GB of KV cache at 32K.
Can Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct run on a Mac?
Yes on a Mac whose GPU can use at least 15.9 GB, e.g. M3 24 GB. macOS lets the GPU use about two thirds to three quarters of unified memory by default.
How fast is Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct?
On a RTX 4090, we estimate 46–63 tok/s at Q4_K_M. This is an estimate from memory bandwidth (confidence low) until benchmarks are imported.