Pixtral 12B needs ~8.8 GB VRAM. Intel Arc A550M 8GB has 8.0 GB. With Q2_K quantization, expect ~13 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
3.5 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization
Fit status
Too heavy
Decode
5.7 tok/s
TTFT
34135 ms
Safe context
4K
Memory
11.5 GB / 8.0 GB
Offload
30%
It fits through host-memory offload, and offload is the main reason performance drops.
CPU or host-memory offload is active
About 10% of the working set spills out of accelerator memory, which usually hurts latency and sustained decode throughput.
Very little memory headroom
You can run the model, but there is not much room left for longer context, bigger batches, extra apps, or future model updates.
Runtime ecosystem is narrower than CUDA
Intel GPUs can look attractive on memory per dollar, but local AI tooling, kernels, and model coverage are still broader and easier on CUDA today.
Remove offload with more accelerator memory
Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.
Prefer CUDA if you want the path of least resistance
If your goal is maximum runtime coverage, easier troubleshooting, and better support for new local AI releases, CUDA is usually still the safer upgrade path.
Buy headroom, not only minimum fit
A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | F | Too heavy | 6.7 tok/s | 15791 ms | 4K |
| Coding | F | Too heavy | 5.3 tok/s | 36695 ms | 4K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 3.5 tok/s | 80143 ms | 4K |
| Reasoning | F | Too heavy | 5.3 tok/s | 43366 ms | 4K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 3.5 tok/s | 100179 ms | 4K |
How Pixtral 12B (12B params) fits at each quantization level on Intel Arc A550M 8GB (8.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_KBest for your GPU | 2 | 4.7 GB | Low | A77 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 5.9 GB | Low | F0 |
Copy-paste commands to run Pixtral 12B on your machine.
Run
ollama run pixtralUpgrade options
Intel Arc B570 10GBBest valueMakes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Raises estimated decode speed by about 195%.
~$219 MSRP
Intel Arc B580 12GBBudget pickMakes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$249 MSRP
Intel Arc A770 16GBIntel upgradeMakes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$349 MSRP
Yes, Intel Arc A550M 8GB can run Pixtral 12B at Q2_K quantization (Very compromised (needs ~0.4 GB host RAM)). The recommended Q4_K_M requires 11.5 GB which exceeds available memory, but at Q2_K it needs only 8.8 GB. Expected decode speed: 13.1 tok/s.
Pixtral 12B (12B parameters) requires approximately 11.5 GB at Q4_K_M quantization. On Intel Arc A550M 8GB, it fits at Q2_K using 8.8 GB.
The recommended quantization is Q4_K_M, but on Intel Arc A550M 8GB the best fitting quantization is Q2_K, which uses 8.8 GB.
On Intel Arc A550M 8GB, Pixtral 12B achieves approximately 13.1 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 14797ms using Q2_K quantization.
For coding workloads, Pixtral 12B on Intel Arc A550M 8GB receives a F grade with 5.3 tok/s and 4K context.
On Intel Arc A550M 8GB, Pixtral 12B can safely use up to 11K tokens of context at Q2_K quantization. The model's official context limit is 131K, 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/pixtral-12b-on-arc-a550m-8gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
| 4 |
6.7 GB |
| Medium |
| F0 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 7.3 GB | Medium | F0 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 8.6 GB | High | F0 |
Q6_K | 6 | 9.8 GB | High | F0 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 12.8 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 24.6 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Remove offload with more accelerator memory. Prioritize a GPU or unified-memory tier that fits the whole model natively. Removing offload usually helps more than small compute gains.
Often yes, if your goal is the easiest setup and the widest runtime support. Intel can offer attractive memory capacity, but CUDA still tends to win on tooling maturity, guides, kernels, and model coverage for local AI.