Will It Run AI

Can Devstral 2 123B Instruct run on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB?

YES — With Q3_K_S

A79Great
Estimated from fit model

Devstral 2 123B Instruct needs ~76.9 GB VRAM. Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB has 69.1 GB. With Q3_K_S quantization, expect ~8 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: HighStack: StandardBottleneck: Host offload
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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.

Devstral 2 123B Instruct at Q4_K_M needs 91.7 GB — too much for Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB (69.1 GB). Runs at Q3_K_S (76.9 GB) with low quality. 2 quantization levels fit.
Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) 91.7 GB, exceeds 69.1 GB available
91.7 GB required69.1 GB available
133% VRAM needed

22.6 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization

Fit status

Too heavy

Decode

5.4 tok/s

TTFT

35565 ms

Safe context

4K

Memory

91.7 GB / 69.1 GB

Offload

20%

Memory breakdown

Weights75.0 GB
KV Cache5.4 GB
Runtime0.9 GB
Headroom10.4 GB

See how fast it feels

With memory offload — actual speed may be lower
See how fast it feelsDevstral 2 123B Instruct on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB
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: 5.4 tok/s decode · 35.6s TTFT (warm) · 14 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

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.

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

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.

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit

A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.

Increase host RAM if you keep offloading

This setup may need roughly 6.1 GB of extra host RAM just for the offloaded portion, before OS and other tools.

Performance by workload

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatFToo heavy5.6 tok/s18723 ms4K
CodingFToo heavy5.0 tok/s38677 ms4K
Agentic CodingFToo heavy5.1 tok/s55297 ms4K
ReasoningFToo heavy5.4 tok/s42031 ms4K
RAGFToo heavy5.1 tok/s69121 ms4K

Quantization options

How Devstral 2 123B Instruct (123B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB (69.1 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_KBest for your GPU
2
48.0 GB
LowS91
Q3_K_S
3
60.3 GB
LowF0
NVFP4
4
68.9 GB
MediumF0
Q4_K_M
4
75.0 GB
MediumF0
Q5_K_M
5
88.6 GB
HighF0
Q6_K
6
100.9 GB
HighF0
Q8_0
8
131.6 GB
Very HighF0
F16
16
252.2 GB
MaximumF0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Devstral 2 123B Instruct on your machine.

Run

lms load Devstral-2-123B-Instruct-2512 && lms server start

Opciones de mejora

Hardware que ejecuta bien Devstral 2 123B Instruct

Frequently asked questions

Can Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB run Devstral 2 123B Instruct?

Yes, Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB can run Devstral 2 123B Instruct at Q3_K_S quantization (Very compromised (needs ~6.1 GB host RAM)). The recommended Q4_K_M requires 91.7 GB which exceeds available memory, but at Q3_K_S it needs only 76.9 GB. Expected decode speed: 7.8 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Devstral 2 123B Instruct need?

Devstral 2 123B Instruct (123B parameters) requires approximately 91.7 GB at Q4_K_M quantization. On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB, it fits at Q3_K_S using 76.9 GB.

What is the best quantization for Devstral 2 123B Instruct?

The recommended quantization is Q4_K_M, but on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB the best fitting quantization is Q3_K_S, which uses 76.9 GB.

What speed will Devstral 2 123B Instruct run at on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB?

On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB, Devstral 2 123B Instruct achieves approximately 7.8 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 24665ms using Q3_K_S quantization.

Can Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB run Devstral 2 123B Instruct for coding?

For coding workloads, Devstral 2 123B Instruct on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB receives a F grade with 5.0 tok/s and 4K context.

What context window can Devstral 2 123B Instruct use on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB?

On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB, Devstral 2 123B Instruct can safely use up to 4K tokens of context at Q3_K_S quantization. The model's official context limit is 256K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if Devstral 2 123B Instruct feels slow on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB?

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.

Is unified memory on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB as fast as VRAM for Devstral 2 123B Instruct?

Not always. Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB 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.

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