Mistral Nemo 12B needs ~17.6 GB VRAM. MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB has 46.1 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~33 tok/s.
Operating mode
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.
Select quantization to explore
Fit status
Runs well
Decode
35.2 tok/s
TTFT
5493 ms
Safe context
128K
Memory
17.6 GB / 46.1 GB
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.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | B | Runs well | 35.2 tok/s | 2996 ms | 128K |
| Coding | B | Runs well | 32.8 tok/s | 5905 ms | 128K |
| Agentic Coding | B | Runs well | 35.2 tok/s | 7990 ms | 128K |
| Reasoning | B | Runs well | 35.2 tok/s | 6492 ms | 128K |
| RAG | B | Runs well | 35.2 tok/s | 9987 ms | 128K |
How Mistral Nemo 12B (12B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB (46.1 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 4.7 GB | Low | C54 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 5.9 GB | Low | C54 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run Mistral Nemo 12B on your machine.
Run
ollama run mistral-nemoUpgrade options
Raises estimated decode speed by about 132%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$3,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 113%.
~$3,999 MSRP
Yes, MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB can run Mistral Nemo 12B with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 32.8 tok/s.
Mistral Nemo 12B (12B parameters) requires approximately 17.6 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Mistral Nemo 12B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB, Mistral Nemo 12B achieves approximately 32.8 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 5905ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Mistral Nemo 12B on MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB receives a B grade with 32.8 tok/s and 128K context.
On MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB, Mistral Nemo 12B can safely use up to 128K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 128K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/mistral-nemo-12b-on-m3-max-64gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
6.7 GB |
| Medium |
| C55 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 7.3 GB | Medium | C55 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 8.6 GB | High | B55 |
Q6_K | 6 | 9.8 GB | High | B55 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 12.8 GB | Very High | B56 |
F16Best for your GPU | 16 | 24.6 GB | Maximum | B60 |
Not always. MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB 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.