Magistral Small 2506 — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
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Magistral Small 2506 is a 23.6B-parameter open language model from Mistral AI in the Mistral family. It supports a context window of up to 40,960 tokens. At Q4_K_M it needs about 14.86 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.
17.0K downloads
609 likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- Mistral AI
- Family
- Mistral
- Parameters
- 23.6B
- Architecture
- MistralForCausalLM
- Context Length
- 40,960 tokens
- Vocabulary Size
- 131,072
- Release Date
- 2025-06-04
- License
- Apache 2.0
Get Started
HuggingFace
How Much VRAM Does Magistral Small 2506 Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_K | 3.40 | 10.7 GB | 18.7 GB | 10.02 GB | 2-bit quantization with K-quant improvements |
| Q3_K_S | 3.50 | 11.0 GB | 19 GB | 10.31 GB | 3-bit small quantization |
| Q3_K_M | 3.90 | 12.2 GB | 20.2 GB | 11.49 GB | 3-bit medium quantization |
| Q4_0 | 4.00 | 12.5 GB | 20.5 GB | 11.79 GB | 4-bit legacy quantization |
| Q4_K_M | 4.80 | 14.9 GB | 22.8 GB | 14.14 GB | 4-bit medium quantization — most popular sweet spot |
| Q5_K_M | 5.70 | 17.5 GB | 25.5 GB | 16.80 GB | 5-bit medium quantization — good quality/size tradeoff |
| Q6_K | 6.60 | 20.2 GB | 28.1 GB | 19.45 GB | 6-bit quantization, very good quality |
| Q8_0 | 8.00 | 24.3 GB | 32.3 GB | 23.57 GB | 8-bit quantization, near-lossless |
Which GPUs Can Run Magistral Small 2506?
Q4_K_M · 14.9 GBMagistral Small 2506 (Q4_K_M) requires 14.9 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 20+ GB is recommended. Using the full 41K context window can add up to 8.0 GB, bringing total usage to 22.8 GB. 26 GPUs can run it, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080.
Runs great
— Plenty of headroom
Decent
— Enough VRAM, may be tightWhich Devices Can Run Magistral Small 2506?
Q4_K_M · 14.9 GB47 devices with unified memory can run Magistral Small 2506, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB, Mac Mini M4 (16 GB).
Runs great
— Plenty of headroomWhere to Download Magistral Small 2506
Community quantizations of this model — GGUF for llama.cpp, Ollama, and LM Studio, plus AWQ/MLX variants where available.
Benchmarks
Benchmark details →Related Models
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does Magistral Small 2506 need?
Magistral Small 2506 requires 14.9 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M, or 47.9 GB at BF16. Full 41K context adds up to 8.0 GB (22.8 GB total).
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 23.6B × 4.8 bits ÷ 8 = 14.1 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.8 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 8.7 GB (at full 41K context)
VRAM usage by quantization
Q4_K_M14.9 GBQ4_K_M + full context22.8 GB- Can NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 run Magistral Small 2506?
Yes, at Q6_K (20.2 GB) or lower. Higher quantizations like Q8_0 (24.3 GB) exceed the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090's 24 GB.
- What's the best quantization for Magistral Small 2506?
For Magistral Small 2506, Q4_K_M (14.9 GB) offers the best balance of quality and VRAM usage. Q4_K_L (15.2 GB) provides better quality if you have the VRAM. The smallest option is IQ2_XXS at 7.2 GB.
VRAM requirement by quantization
IQ2_XXS7.2 GBQ2_K10.7 GBIQ4_XS13.4 GBQ4_K_M ★14.9 GBQ4_K_L15.2 GBBF1647.9 GB★ Recommended — best balance of quality and VRAM usage.
- Can I run Magistral Small 2506 on a Mac?
Magistral Small 2506 requires at least 7.2 GB at IQ2_XXS, 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 Magistral Small 2506 locally?
Yes — Magistral Small 2506 can run locally on consumer hardware. At Q4_K_M quantization it needs 14.9 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is Magistral Small 2506?
At Q4_K_M, Magistral Small 2506 can reach ~296 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI350X. On NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: ~44 tok/s. Speed depends mainly on GPU memory bandwidth. Real-world results typically within ±20%.
tok/s = (bandwidth GB/s ÷ model GB) × efficiency
Example: NVIDIA B200 → 8000 ÷ 14.9 × 0.65 = ~350 tok/s
Estimated speed at Q4_K_M (14.9 GB)
~350 tok/s~44 tok/s~350 tok/s~296 tok/sReal-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
- What's the download size of Magistral Small 2506?
At Q4_K_M, the download is about 14.14 GB. The full-precision BF16 version is 47.14 GB. The smallest option (IQ2_XXS) is 6.48 GB.
- Which GPUs can run Magistral Small 2506?
26 consumer GPUs can run Magistral Small 2506 at Q4_K_M (14.9 GB). Top options include AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, AMD Radeon RX 6800. 7 GPUs have plenty of headroom for comfortable inference.
- Which devices can run Magistral Small 2506?
49 devices with unified memory can run Magistral Small 2506 at Q4_K_M (14.9 GB), including AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Strix Point) Laptop, ASUS Ascent GX10, Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2025, Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128 GB), Beelink GTR9 Pro (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128 GB). Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.