Family Mistral · 24B parameters★ Made in France

Mistral Small 3

Excellent quality-to-size ratio at release (early 2025). Competes with 70B models.

🇫🇷 Mistral AI·License Apache 2.0·Context 32k tokens·Output January 2025·Fits within the 128 GB of the GIGABYTE AI TOP ATOM← Catalog

01What it can do

Strengths
  • Quality close to Llama 70B
  • Low latency
  • 128k context
  • Excellent for agents and tool use
Limitations to know
  • —Requires at least 16 GB of VRAM in Q4
  • —Worse at coding than Qwen Coder
Architecture
Dense Transformer · 40 layers · GQA + sliding window
Training
Enriched multilingual corpus, with a strong focus on FR + scientific English.
Ideal for
Advanced chatWritingAgents

05Install

Install Ollama for your OS. Check the model and its quantization before downloading. Start with 4096 tokens of context, then check placement with ollama ps. A command below is not proof that a test was run on your machine.

$ollama run mistral-small:24b
⚠
First download: between 2 and 40 GB depending on the selected quantization. Plan for sufficient disk space; a stable connection is recommended. Subsequent launches are instant.

02Required memory

Approximate GPU VRAM required to run this model, including 4k tokens of context overhead. For a longer context, add ~1 GB per 8k-token increment.

Q4_K_M
The lightest, ~5% loss
14 GB
Q5_K_M
Good quality/size compromise
17 GB
Q8_0
Nearly indistinguishable from FP16
26 GB
FP16
Full precision — server use
48 GB
Fallback CPU · If you don't have a GPU, allow 24 GB of RAM minimum to run this model at reduced speed.

What hardware do you need for Mistral Small 3?

To run Mistral Small 3 locally with Q4 quantization, you need about 14 GB of VRAM. An option to compare: GMKtec EVO-X2 64GB / 1TB (Ryzen AI Max+ 395) — leave some headroom for the system and context; check engine compatibility with the GPU.

Current offer: GMKtec EVO-X2 64GB / 1TB (Ryzen AI Max+ 395)
AmazonSee price →

Why this choice? Our complete guide on GMKtec EVO-X2 64GB / 1TB (Ryzen AI Max+ 395) →

Affiliate links — commission possible at no extra cost to you; independent recommendations. As an Amazon Associate, BestLLMfor earns from qualifying purchases.

On the go: Mistral Small 3 also runs on a RTX laptop PC (16 GB of VRAM) →

This model in your private ChatGPT, without the cloud

Your private ChatGPT, free, on your own machine in an hour — LM Studio, Ollama, Open WebUI, your documents, no cloud.

  • Lifetime online access
  • PDF + files
  • Lifetime updates

03Expected speed

Tokens generated per second in Q4_K_M, 4k context. Beyond 20 t/s, reading is comfortable. Below 10 t/s, that's just for testing.

Entry-level
~4t/s
GTX 1650, RX 6600, MBA M2 8GB
Mid-range
~15t/s
RTX 4060, 4070, MBP M3 Pro
High-end
~40t/s
RTX 4090, M4 Max, Radeon 7900

04Public benchmarks

Scores reproduced from model cards or MMLU-Pro / community sources. Unit: % correct answers.

MMLU
81
GPQA
42.2
HumanEval
84.8