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Can the Apple M1 (16GB) run Gemma 3 4B?

Apple M1 (16GB) × Gemma 3 4B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at FP1610.3 GB of 10.7 GB
Weights 8.6 GBKV cache 1.1 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantFP16Full quality
Memory10.3 GBof 10.7 GB usable
Speed~5tokens per second
  1. FP16
  2. Q8_0
  3. Q6_K
  4. Q5_K_M
  5. Q4_K_M
  6. Q3_K_M
  7. Q2_K

Yes. The Apple M1 (16GB) can run Gemma 3 4B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 10.3 GB of the 10.7 GB available, at roughly 5 tokens/second.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Gemma 3 4B:

ollama run gemma3:4b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 4.3 GB here). You have room for FP16, which is full quality: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.

New to this? Step-by-step setup for the Apple M1 (16GB)

Run it in the cloud

No Apple M1 (16GB)? Run Gemma 3 4B in the cloud.

Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.

Rent a GPU on RunPodRent a GPU on Vast.ai

Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 10.7 GB the Apple M1 (16GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 10.7 GB of the 16 GB unified memory by default.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality10.3 GBFits~5 tok/s
Q8_0Near-lossless6.3 GBFits~9 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent5.3 GBFits~12 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good4.8 GBFits~13 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular4.3 GBFits~16 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded3.8 GBFits~19 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded3.4 GBFits~25 tok/s

GPUs that run Gemma 3 4B comfortably

Models that run well on the Apple M1 (16GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M1 (16GB) run Gemma 3 4B?

Yes. The Apple M1 (16GB) can run Gemma 3 4B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 10.3 GB of the 10.7 GB available, at roughly 5 tokens/second.

How much VRAM does Gemma 3 4B need?

About 4.3 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 10.3 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Gemma 3 4B on the Apple M1 (16GB)?

Roughly 5 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M1 (16GB)'s 68 GB/s memory bandwidth.