BioMistral 7B — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
Chat
BioMistral 7B is a 7B-parameter open language model from BioMistral in the Mistral family. It supports a context window of up to 32,768 tokens. At Q4_K_M it needs about 4.77 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.
102.4K downloads
506 likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- BioMistral
- Family
- Mistral
- Parameters
- 7B
- Architecture
- MistralForCausalLM
- Context Length
- 32,768 tokens
- Vocabulary Size
- 32,000
- Release Date
- 2024-02-14
- License
- Apache 2.0
Get Started
HuggingFace
How Much VRAM Does BioMistral 7B Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_K | 3.40 | 3.5 GB | 7.6 GB | 2.98 GB | 2-bit quantization with K-quant improvements |
| Q3_K_S | 3.50 | 3.6 GB | 7.7 GB | 3.06 GB | 3-bit small quantization |
| Q3_K_M | 3.90 | 4.0 GB | 8.0 GB | 3.41 GB | 3-bit medium quantization |
| Q4_K_M | 4.80 | 4.8 GB | 8.8 GB | 4.20 GB | 4-bit medium quantization — most popular sweet spot |
| Q5_K_M | 5.70 | 5.6 GB | 9.6 GB | 4.99 GB | 5-bit medium quantization — good quality/size tradeoff |
| Q6_K | 6.60 | 6.3 GB | 10.4 GB | 5.78 GB | 6-bit quantization, very good quality |
| Q8_0 | 8.00 | 7.6 GB | 11.6 GB | 7.00 GB | 8-bit quantization, near-lossless |
est.= calculated VRAM estimate; no published GGUF file found for that quantization yet. Other rows are verified against real community uploads.
Which GPUs Can Run BioMistral 7B?
Q4_K_M · 4.8 GBBioMistral 7B (Q4_K_M) requires 4.8 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 7+ GB is recommended. Using the full 33K context window can add up to 4.0 GB, bringing total usage to 8.8 GB. 35 GPUs can run it, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.
Runs great
— Plenty of headroomWhich Devices Can Run BioMistral 7B?
Q4_K_M · 4.8 GB33 devices with unified memory can run BioMistral 7B, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB.
Runs great
— Plenty of headroomWhere to Download BioMistral 7B
Community quantizations of this model — GGUF for llama.cpp, Ollama, and LM Studio, plus AWQ/MLX variants where available.
Related Models
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does BioMistral 7B need?
BioMistral 7B requires 4.8 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M, or 14.6 GB at BF16. Full 33K context adds up to 4.0 GB (8.8 GB total).
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 7B × 4.8 bits ÷ 8 = 4.2 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.6 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 4.6 GB (at full 33K context)
VRAM usage by quantization
Q4_K_M4.8 GBQ4_K_M + full context8.8 GB- What's the best quantization for BioMistral 7B?
For BioMistral 7B, Q4_K_M (4.8 GB) offers the best balance of quality and VRAM usage. Q5_K_S (5.4 GB) provides better quality if you have the VRAM. The smallest option is Q2_K at 3.5 GB.
VRAM requirement by quantization
Q2_K3.5 GBQ3_K_L4.2 GBQ4_K_M ★4.8 GBQ5_K_S5.4 GBQ5_K_M5.6 GBBF1614.6 GB★ Recommended — best balance of quality and VRAM usage.
- Can I run BioMistral 7B on a Mac?
BioMistral 7B requires at least 3.5 GB at Q2_K, which exceeds the unified memory of most consumer Macs. You would need a Mac Studio or Mac Pro with a high-memory configuration.
- Can I run BioMistral 7B locally?
Yes — BioMistral 7B can run locally on consumer hardware. At Q4_K_M quantization it needs 4.8 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is BioMistral 7B?
At Q4_K_M, BioMistral 7B can reach ~611 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI300X. On NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: ~137 tok/s. Speed depends mainly on GPU memory bandwidth. Real-world results typically within ±20%.
tok/s = (bandwidth GB/s ÷ model GB) × efficiency
Example: AMD Instinct MI300X → 5300 ÷ 4.8 × 0.55 = ~611 tok/s
Estimated speed at Q4_K_M (4.8 GB)
~611 tok/s~137 tok/s~457 tok/s~378 tok/sReal-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
- What's the download size of BioMistral 7B?
At Q4_K_M, the download is about 4.20 GB. The full-precision BF16 version is 14.00 GB. The smallest option (Q2_K) is 2.98 GB.
- Which GPUs can run BioMistral 7B?
35 consumer GPUs can run BioMistral 7B at Q4_K_M (4.8 GB). Top options include AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, AMD Radeon RX 6800, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. 35 GPUs have plenty of headroom for comfortable inference.
- Which devices can run BioMistral 7B?
33 devices with unified memory can run BioMistral 7B at Q4_K_M (4.8 GB), including Mac Mini M4 (16 GB), Mac Mini M4 (32 GB), Mac Mini M4 Pro (24 GB), Mac Mini M4 Pro (48 GB). Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.