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Can the Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Gemma 3 12B?

Apple M3 Max (64GB) × Gemma 3 12B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at FP1628.2 GB of 48 GB
Weights 24.4 GBKV cache 3.2 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantFP16Full quality
Memory28.2 GBof 48 GB usable
Speed~10tokens 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 M3 Max (64GB) can run Gemma 3 12B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 28.2 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 10 tokens/second.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Gemma 3 12B:

ollama run gemma3:12b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 11.2 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 M3 Max (64GB)

Run it in the cloud

No Apple M3 Max (64GB)? Run Gemma 3 12B 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 48 GB the Apple M3 Max (64GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 48 GB of the 64 GB unified memory by default.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality28.2 GBFits~10 tok/s
Q8_0Near-lossless16.8 GBFits~19 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent13.8 GBFits~24 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good12.5 GBFits~28 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular11.2 GBFits~32 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded9.8 GBFits~40 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded8.4 GBFits~52 tok/s

GPUs that run Gemma 3 12B comfortably

Models that run well on the Apple M3 Max (64GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Gemma 3 12B?

Yes. The Apple M3 Max (64GB) can run Gemma 3 12B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 28.2 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 10 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 M3 Max (64GB)?

Roughly 10 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M3 Max (64GB)'s 400 GB/s memory bandwidth.