Can Codestral Mamba 7B run on MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB?

YES — Runs Great

A74Great

Estimated from fit model

Codestral Mamba 7B needs ~9.5 GB VRAM. MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB has 25.9 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~70 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: LowStack: StandardBottleneck: Balanced

Operating mode

Choose the run profile you care about

Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.

Current mode

Balanced

Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 9.5 GB, 69.6 tok/s, Runs well

9.5 GB required25.9 GB available

37% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

69.6 tok/s

TTFT

2783 ms

Safe context

262K

Memory

9.5 GB / 25.9 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.3 GB

KV Cache0.5 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom3.9 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsCodestral Mamba 7B on MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Write a Python function to sort a list
Here's a Python function that sorts a list using quicksort:

def quicksort(arr):
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

# Example usage
numbers = [3, 6, 8, 10, 1, 2, 1]
print(quicksort(numbers))  # [1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10]

The algorithm picks a pivot, partitions the list into smaller, equal, and larger elements, then recursively sorts each partition and concatenates the results.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>Now add type hints and a docstring
def quicksort(arr: list[int]) -> list[int]:
    """Sort a list using the quicksort algorithm.

    Args:
        arr: List of integers to sort.

    Returns:
        A new sorted list.
    """
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

Added type hints for the input and return type, plus a Google-style docstring.
Estimated: 69.6 tok/s decode · 2.8s TTFT (warm) · 174 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

Shared-memory contention still exists

The OS, browser, and inference runtime all compete for the same physical memory pool, so real-world headroom is less forgiving than raw capacity suggests.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	A	Runs well	69.6 tok/s	1518 ms	262K
Coding	A	Runs well	69.6 tok/s	2783 ms	262K
Agentic Coding	A	Runs well	69.6 tok/s	4048 ms	262K
Reasoning	A	Runs well	69.6 tok/s	3289 ms	262K
RAG	A	Runs well	69.6 tok/s	5060 ms	262K

Quantization options

How Codestral Mamba 7B (7B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB (25.9 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	2.7 GB	Low	B69
Q3_K_S	3	3.4 GB	Low	B69
NVFP4	4	3.9 GB	Medium	B70
Q4_K_M	4	4.3 GB	Medium	B70
Q5_K_M	5	5.0 GB	High	A70
Q6_K	6	5.7 GB	High	A70
Q8_0	8	7.5 GB	Very High	A71
F16Best for your GPU	16	14.3 GB	Maximum	A75

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Codestral Mamba 7B on your machine.

Run

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \
  --hf-repo "mistralai/Mamba-Codestral-7B-v0.1" \
  --hf-file "Mamba-Codestral-7B-v0.1-Q4_K_M.gguf" \
  -c 4096 -ngl 99

Your hardware

More models your MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB can run

Model	Params	Grade	Decode
Qwen3-Coder 30B A3B Instruct	30.5B	S	39.1 tok/s
Qwen 3.5 27B	27B	S	28.8 tok/s
Qwen 3.6 27B	27B	S	21.9 tok/s
Qwen 3.6 35B A3B	35B	A	28.5 tok/s
Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct	30B	S	40.4 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB run Codestral Mamba 7B?

Yes, MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB can run Codestral Mamba 7B with a A grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 69.6 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Codestral Mamba 7B need?

Codestral Mamba 7B (7B parameters) requires approximately 9.5 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Codestral Mamba 7B?

The recommended quantization for Codestral Mamba 7B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Codestral Mamba 7B run at on MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB?

On MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB, Codestral Mamba 7B achieves approximately 69.6 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2783ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB run Codestral Mamba 7B for coding?

For coding workloads, Codestral Mamba 7B on MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB receives a A grade with 69.6 tok/s and 262K context.

What context window can Codestral Mamba 7B use on MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB?

On MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB, Codestral Mamba 7B can safely use up to 262K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 262K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

Is unified memory on MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB as fast as VRAM for Codestral Mamba 7B?

Not always. MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB can often fit larger models thanks to unified memory, but a discrete GPU with dedicated high-bandwidth VRAM may still decode faster once the model fits. For this combination, the important distinction is capacity versus sustained throughput.

See all results for MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB See all hardware for Codestral Mamba 7B

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Preview:

Workload

Grade

Fit

Decode

TTFT

Context

Chat

Runs well

69.6 tok/s

1518 ms

262K

Coding

Runs well

69.6 tok/s

2783 ms

262K

Agentic Coding

Runs well

69.6 tok/s

4048 ms

262K

Reasoning

Runs well

69.6 tok/s

3289 ms

262K

RAG

Runs well

69.6 tok/s

5060 ms

262K

Quantization options

How Codestral Mamba 7B (7B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB (25.9 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	2.7 GB	Low	B69
Q3_K_S	3	3.4 GB	Low	B69
NVFP4	4	3.9 GB	Medium	B70
Q4_K_M	4	4.3 GB	Medium	B70
Q5_K_M	5	5.0 GB	High	A70
Q6_K	6	5.7 GB	High	A70
Q8_0	8	7.5 GB	Very High	A71
F16Best for your GPU	16	14.3 GB	Maximum	A75

Model

Params

Grade

Decode

Capabilities

Qwen3-Coder 30B A3B Instruct

30.5B

39.1 tok/s

Qwen 3.5 27B

27B

28.8 tok/s

Qwen 3.6 27B

27B

21.9 tok/s

Qwen 3.6 35B A3B

35B

28.5 tok/s

Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct

30B

40.4 tok/s