Rent a GPU

Can the Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Gemma 4 26B-A4B?

Apple M3 Max (64GB) × Gemma 4 26B-A4B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at Q8_028.3 GB of 48 GB
Weights 27.4 GBKV cache 0.3 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantQ8_0Near-lossless
Speed~59tokens per second
Max context256Kthe model's full window
  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 4 26B-A4B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 28.3 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 59 tokens/second.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Gemma 4 26B-A4B:

ollama run gemma4:26b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 16.5 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 4 26B-A4B 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 quality52.5 GBToo big—
Q8_0Near-lossless28.3 GBFits~59 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent22 GBFits~77 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good19.2 GBFits~89 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular16.5 GBFits~104 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded13.5 GBFits~129 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded10.6 GBFits~168 tok/s

Measured speed from real Apple M3 Max (64GB) owners

Tokens per second that people measured on their own Apple M3 Max (64GB), next to our estimate.

No one has measured Gemma 4 26B-A4B on the Apple M3 Max (64GB) yet. The speeds above are estimates. Run the benchmark and yours becomes the first real number on this page.

Have an Apple M3 Max (64GB)? Add your real speed

One command times Gemma 4 26B-A4B in your own Ollama, shows you exactly what it would send, and asks before sending anything. No sign-up, no personal data.

macOS and Linux

curl -fsSL https://gpufit.dev/bench.sh | sh -s -- gemma4:26b

Windows (PowerShell)

$env:GPUFIT_MODEL="gemma4:26b"; irm https://gpufit.dev/bench.ps1 | iex

How the benchmark works

GPUs that run Gemma 4 26B-A4B comfortably

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

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M3 Max (64GB) run Gemma 4 26B-A4B?

Yes. The Apple M3 Max (64GB) can run Gemma 4 26B-A4B fully in unified memory at Q8_0 (near-lossless), using about 28.3 GB of the 48 GB available, at roughly 59 tokens/second.

How much VRAM does Gemma 4 26B-A4B need?

About 16.5 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 52.5 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Gemma 4 26B-A4B on the Apple M3 Max (64GB)?

Roughly 59 tokens per second at Q8_0, estimated from the Apple M3 Max (64GB)'s 400 GB/s memory bandwidth.