Is unified memory on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB as fast as VRAM for Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B?

Not always. Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB 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.

Can Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B run on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB?

YES — Runs Great

C46Usable

Estimated from fit model

Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B needs ~19.8 GB VRAM. Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB has 92.2 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~98 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: HighStack: 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) — 19.8 GB, 98.0 tok/s, Runs well

19.8 GB required92.2 GB available

21% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

98.0 tok/s

TTFT

1976 ms

Safe context

1.4M

Memory

19.8 GB / 92.2 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights4.3 GB

KV Cache0.8 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom13.8 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsHermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>What is local AI inference?
Local AI inference means running an AI language model directly on your own hardware — your laptop, desktop, or server — instead of sending requests to a remote cloud API.

When you run inference locally the model weights are loaded into your GPU or unified memory. Each token you generate requires reading those weights from memory, so memory bandwidth is the main bottleneck for decode speed.

Key benefits of running locally:
  - Full privacy: your prompts never leave your machine
  - No per-token cost or rate limits
  - Works offline once the model is downloaded
  - Latency depends only on your hardware
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>How much VRAM do I need?
It depends on the model size and quantization level. A rough rule of thumb:

  Model size     Q4 (4-bit)    Q8 (8-bit)    FP16
  7B params      ~4.3 GB       ~7.5 GB       ~14 GB
  13B params     ~7.9 GB       ~13.9 GB      ~26 GB
  70B params     ~42.7 GB      ~74.9 GB      ~140 GB

Most people use 4-bit quantization (Q4_K_M) which gives 90-95% of full quality at a fraction of the memory. A 24 GB GPU can comfortably run most 7B-13B models.
Estimated: 98.0 tok/s decode · 2.0s TTFT (warm) · 245 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	C	Runs well	98.0 tok/s	1078 ms	1.4M
Coding	C	Runs well	98.0 tok/s	1976 ms	1.4M
Agentic Coding	C	Runs well	98.0 tok/s	2873 ms	1.4M
Reasoning	C	Runs well	98.0 tok/s	2335 ms	1.4M
RAG	C	Runs well	98.0 tok/s	3592 ms	1.4M

Inference speed

Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B inference speed — tokens per second by GPU & Mac

Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~98 tok/s. Speed is memory-bandwidth bound, so cards that fit the whole model in VRAM run far faster than ones that offload to system RAM.

GPU / Mac	Memory	Quant	Speed (tok/s)	Fits?
RTX 5090 32GB	32 GB	Q4_K_M	98.0	Fits
RTX 4090 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	98.0	Fits
RTX 4080 Super 16GB	16 GB	Q4_K_M	98.0

Quantization options

How Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B (7B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB (92.2 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	2.7 GB	Low	D39
Q3_K_S	3	3.4 GB	Low	D39
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-nousresearch--hermes-2-pro-mistral-7b-gguf && lms server start

Frequently asked questions

Can Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB run Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B?

Yes, Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB can run Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 98.0 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B need?

Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B (7B parameters) requires approximately 19.8 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B?

The recommended quantization for Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B run at on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB?

On Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB, Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B achieves approximately 98.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 1976ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB run Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B for coding?

For coding workloads, Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB receives a C grade with 98.0 tok/s and 1.4M context.

What context window can Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B use on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB?

On Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB, Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B can safely use up to 1.4M tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

See all results for Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB See all hardware for Hermes 2 Pro Mistral 7B

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