Can Pixtral Large 124B run on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB?

YES — Runs Great

S86Excellent

Estimated from fit model

Pixtral Large 124B needs ~109.6 GB VRAM. Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB has 184.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~8 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) — 109.6 GB, 8.0 tok/s, Runs well

109.6 GB required184.3 GB available

59% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

8.0 tok/s

TTFT

24179 ms

Safe context

131K

Memory

109.6 GB / 184.3 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights75.6 GB

KV Cache5.4 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom27.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsPixtral Large 124B on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Solve: If a train travels at 60 mph for 2.5 hours, how far does it go?
Let me work through this step by step.

Given information:
  - Speed = 60 mph (miles per hour)
  - Time  = 2.5 hours

Formula: Distance = Speed x Time

Calculation:
  Distance = 60 mph x 2.5 h
           = 150 miles

The train travels 150 miles.

Double-check: at 60 mph the train covers 60 miles each hour. In half an hour it covers 30 miles. So in 2.5 hours: 60 + 60 + 30 = 150 miles. Confirmed.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>What if the train stops for 20 minutes halfway?
The stop doesn't change the total distance covered while moving, but it affects total trip time.

Breakdown:
  - First half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles
  - Stop: 20 minutes (no distance)
  - Second half: 1.25 hours at 60 mph = 75 miles

Total distance: 150 miles (same)
Total time: 2.5 h + 0.33 h = 2.83 hours
Average speed: 150 / 2.83 = 53 mph

The distance stays the same but average speed drops to 53 mph because of the stop.
Estimated: 8.0 tok/s decode · 24.2s TTFT (warm) · 20 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	S	Runs well	8.0 tok/s	13188 ms	131K
Coding	S	Runs well	8.0 tok/s	24179 ms	131K
Agentic Coding	S	Runs well	8.0 tok/s	35169 ms	131K
Reasoning	S	Runs well	8.0 tok/s	28575 ms	131K
RAG	S	Runs well	8.0 tok/s	43961 ms	131K

Quantization options

How Pixtral Large 124B (124B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB (184.3 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	48.4 GB	Low	A81
Q3_K_S	3	60.8 GB	Low	A83
NVFP4	4	69.4 GB	Medium	A84
Q4_K_M	4	75.6 GB	Medium	A84
Q5_K_M	5	89.3 GB	High	S86
Q6_K	6	101.7 GB	High	S87
Q8_0Best for your GPU	8	132.7 GB	Very High	S87
F16	16	254.2 GB	Maximum	F0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Pixtral Large 124B on your machine.

Run

lms load Pixtral-Large-Instruct-2411 && lms server start

Your hardware

More models your Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB can run

Model	Params	Grade	Decode	Capabilities
DeepSeek V4 Flash	284B	S	17.8 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB run Pixtral Large 124B?

Yes, Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB can run Pixtral Large 124B with a S grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 8.0 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Pixtral Large 124B need?

Pixtral Large 124B (124B parameters) requires approximately 109.6 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Pixtral Large 124B?

The recommended quantization for Pixtral Large 124B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Pixtral Large 124B run at on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB?

On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB, Pixtral Large 124B achieves approximately 8.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 24179ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB run Pixtral Large 124B for coding?

For coding workloads, Pixtral Large 124B on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB receives a S grade with 8.0 tok/s and 131K context.

What context window can Pixtral Large 124B use on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB?

On Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB, Pixtral Large 124B can safely use up to 131K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 131K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

Is unified memory on Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB as fast as VRAM for Pixtral Large 124B?

Not always. Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB 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 Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB See all hardware for Pixtral Large 124B

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