Can the Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Gemma 3 27B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The Apple M3 Max (64GB) can run Gemma 3 27B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 33.9 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 8 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 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 M3 Max (64GB)
Run it in the cloud
No Apple M3 Max (64GB)? 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 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.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 59.6 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 33.9 GB | Fits | ~8 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 27.2 GB | Fits | ~11 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 24.2 GB | Fits | ~12 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 21.4 GB | Fits | ~14 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 18.2 GB | Fits | ~18 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 15 GB | Fits | ~23 tok/s |
GPUs that run Gemma 3 27B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M3 Max (64GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Gemma 3 27B?
Yes. The Apple M3 Max (64GB) can run Gemma 3 27B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 33.9 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 8 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 M3 Max (64GB)?
Roughly 8 tokens per second at Q8_0, estimated from the Apple M3 Max (64GB)'s 400 GB/s memory bandwidth.