Run Mistral 7B on M5 Max

Yes — Mistral 7B (7B) runs at 122 tok/s on M5 Max with 64 GB RAM using Q4_K_M quantization via Ollama. First token latency is 0.3s. Mistral AI's classic 7B model, one of the most widely-supported open models.

Speed
122
tok/s
First Token
0.3
seconds
RAM Needed
64
GB minimum
Engine
Ollama
recommended

Benchmark Details

LLMCheck measured Mistral 7B on M5 Max using the standard methodology: Q4_K_M quantization, 256-token input, 512-token output, 3 runs averaged on a freshly-booted system.

MetricValue
Tokens per second122 tok/s
Time to first token0.3s
QuantizationQ4_K_M
Minimum RAM64 GB
Recommended engineOllama
Parameters7B
Benchmark date2026-03

Q4_K_M 7B Ollama M5 Max

Setup Guide: Run Mistral 7B on M5 Max

The recommended engine for Mistral 7B on M5 Max is Ollama. Install Ollama, then pull the model:

ollama run mistral:7b

Ollama handles quantization automatically — it will download the Q4_K_M variant (~64 GB) and start an interactive chat session.

Performance on Other Apple Silicon Chips

ChipSpeedFirst TokenMin RAMEngine
M4 Pro 98 tok/s 0.4s 24 GB MLX
M3 62 tok/s 0.6s 16 GB Ollama
M1 42 tok/s 1.2s 16 GB Ollama

System Requirements

To run Mistral 7B on M5 Max you need:

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