Mistral Small 3.2 24B on MetaX C500 64GB (沐曦曦云) (64GB) — VRAM, KV Cache & Throughput
Mistral Small 3.2 24B (24.01B total, 24.01B active, Dense GQA) uses 13.35 GiB of 4-bit weights (Q4_K_M), requiring 15.16 GiB total at 8K context and 18.91 GiB at 32K on MetaX C500 64GB (沐曦曦云) (~76.7 tok/s decode).
Recommended Hardware for Current Configuration
Production Launch Commands
llama-server -hf unsloth/Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506-GGUF:Q4_K_M \ --ctx-size 8192 -ngl 999 --flash-attn
vllm serve mistralai/Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct-2506 \ --max-model-len 8192 --gpu-memory-utilization 0.92
Cloud GPU Comparison & Rent-vs-Buy TCO
Verified public rates across RunPod, Vast.ai, Vultr, and DigitalOcean.
| Provider | Recommended Instance | Total VRAM | Hourly Rate | Monthly at Selected Hours | Billing Mode | Deploy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RunPod | 1x RTX 3090 (Community Cloud) | 24 GB | $0.22 / hr | $26.75 / mo | Per-second | Deploy GPU ↗ |
| Vast.ai | 1x RTX 3090 (Verified Host) | 24 GB | $0.19 / hr | $22.98 / mo | Spot / On-demand | Deploy GPU ↗ |
| Vultr ($300 Free Credit*) | 1x L40S 48GB (Dedicated Instance · $300 Credit*) | 48 GB | $1.67 / hr | $203.19 / mo | Hourly | Deploy GPU ↗ |
| Vultr Cloud GPU | 1x L40S 48GB (Dedicated Instance) | 48 GB | $1.67 / hr | $203.19 / mo | Hourly | Deploy GPU ↗ |
| DigitalOcean | 1x RTX 6000 Ada (Dedicated Instance) | 48 GB | $1.57 / hr | $190.91 / mo | Per-second | Deploy GPU ↗ |
Rates reflect public listings on the verification date and fluctuate with regional inventory.
Fine-Tuning VRAM Requirements (QLoRA / LoRA / Full) — Mistral Small 3.2 24B
Engineering Sizing Notes & Optimization Playbook
Quick Hardware Verdict
MetaX C500 64GB (沐曦曦云) (64GB physical, 60.8 GiB usable) runs 4-bit (Q4_K_M) Mistral Small 3.2 24B at 8K context using 15.16 GiB with 45.64 GiB of safe headroom (~76.7 tok/s single-stream decode).
KV Cache & Runtime Tuning
Mistral Small 3.2 24B uses Dense GQA (24.01B total, 24.01B active per token). Moving from 8K to 32K context expands FP16 KV cache from 1.25 GiB to 5 GiB; enabling 8-bit KV cache (llama.cpp -ctk q8_0 -ctv q8_0 or vLLM --kv-cache-dtype fp8) saves 2.5 GiB at 32K (reducing total VRAM to 16.41 GiB).
VRAM Scaling Across Context Windows (4K to 128K, 4-bit Weights)
Quantization Precision & Memory Matrix — Mistral Small 3.2 24B @ 8K
| Quantization Format | Weights (GiB) | KV Cache | Total VRAM (GiB) | Decode Speed | Compatibility (MetaX C500 64GB (沐曦曦云)) | Recommended GPU | Data Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native Weights (BF16 / FP8 / MXFP4 — Lossless) (BF16) | 44.72 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 46.53 GiB (49.96 GB) | ~24.3 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB) | Official checkpoint size |
| FP8 / GGUF Q8_0 (8-bit — Near-Lossless) (Q8_0) | 23.33 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 25.14 GiB (26.99 GB) | ~45.5 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | Radeon AI PRO R9700 32GB (32GB) | Measured GGUF shard size |
| GGUF Q6_K (6-bit — High Precision) (Q6_K) | 18.02 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 19.83 GiB (21.29 GB) | ~58 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB) | Measured GGUF shard size |
| GGUF Q5_K_M (5-bit — Balanced) (Q5_K_M) | 15.61 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 17.42 GiB (18.7 GB) | ~66.4 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB) | Measured GGUF shard size |
| Q4_K_M / UD-Q4_K_XL / AWQ (4-bit — Recommended) (Q4_K_M) | 13.35 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 15.16 GiB (16.28 GB) | ~76.7 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB) | Measured GGUF shard size |
| GGUF IQ4_XS (4.25-bit — Compact) (IQ4_XS) | 11.9 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 13.71 GiB (14.72 GB) | ~85.2 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB) | Measured GGUF shard size |
| GGUF Q3_K_M (3-bit — Low VRAM) (Q3_K_M) | 10.69 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 12.5 GiB (13.42 GB) | ~93.8 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB) | Measured GGUF shard size |
| GGUF UD-Q2_K_XL (2-bit — Extreme MoE) (UD-Q2_K_XL) | 8.65 GiB | 1.25 GiB | 10.46 GiB (11.23 GB) | ~113.2 tok/s | Fits with Safe Headroom | RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB) | Measured GGUF shard size |
Technical Specifications & FAQ
Does Mistral Small 3.2 24B fit on MetaX C500 64GB (沐曦曦云) (64GB)?
In 4-bit (Q4_K_M) at 8,192 context, Mistral Small 3.2 24B requires 15.16 GiB total GPU memory (13.35 GiB weights + 1.25 GiB KV cache + 0.56 GiB runtime buffers) against 60.8 GiB usable on MetaX C500 64GB (沐曦曦云), delivering ~76.7 tok/s decode.
How much VRAM does Mistral Small 3.2 24B need at 32K context?
At 32,768 context tokens, Mistral Small 3.2 24B (Dense GQA) allocates 5 GiB for KV cache and state, bringing total 4-bit VRAM to 18.91 GiB (20.3 GB decimal).