Can the Apple M2 Pro (32GB) run Gemma 3 12B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The Apple M2 Pro (32GB) can run Gemma 3 12B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 16.8 GB of the 21.4 GB available, at roughly 9 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Gemma 3 12B:
ollama run gemma3:12bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 11.2 GB here). You have room for Q8_0, which is near-lossless: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.
New to this? Step-by-step setup for the Apple M2 Pro (32GB)
Run it in the cloud
No Apple M2 Pro (32GB)? Run Gemma 3 12B 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 21.4 GB the Apple M2 Pro (32GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 21.4 GB of the 32 GB unified memory by default.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 28.2 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 16.8 GB | Fits | ~9 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 13.8 GB | Fits | ~12 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 12.5 GB | Fits | ~14 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 11.2 GB | Fits | ~16 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 9.8 GB | Fits | ~20 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 8.4 GB | Fits | ~26 tok/s |
GPUs that run Gemma 3 12B comfortably
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M2 Pro (32GB) run Gemma 3 12B?
Yes. The Apple M2 Pro (32GB) can run Gemma 3 12B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 16.8 GB of the 21.4 GB available, at roughly 9 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Gemma 3 12B need?
About 11.2 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 28.2 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Gemma 3 12B on the Apple M2 Pro (32GB)?
Roughly 9 tokens per second at Q8_0, estimated from the Apple M2 Pro (32GB)'s 200 GB/s memory bandwidth.