Can the Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Gemma 3 27B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run Gemma 3 27B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 59.6 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 6 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Gemma 3 27B:
ollama run gemma3:27bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 21.4 GB here). You have room for FP16, which is full quality: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.
Run it in the cloud
No Apple M4 Max (128GB)? Run Gemma 3 27B in the cloud.
Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.
Memory needed by quantization
At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 96 GB the Apple M4 Max (128GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 96 GB of the 128 GB unified memory by default.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 59.6 GB | Fits | ~6 tok/s | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 33.9 GB | Fits | ~11 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 27.2 GB | Fits | ~15 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 24.2 GB | Fits | ~17 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 21.4 GB | Fits | ~20 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 18.2 GB | Fits | ~24 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 15 GB | Fits | ~32 tok/s |
GPUs that run Gemma 3 27B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Gemma 3 27B?
Yes. The Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run Gemma 3 27B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 59.6 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 6 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Gemma 3 27B need?
About 21.4 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 59.6 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Gemma 3 27B on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)?
Roughly 6 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M4 Max (128GB)'s 546 GB/s memory bandwidth.