Can the Apple M4 (16GB) run Gemma 2 9B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The Apple M4 (16GB) can run Gemma 2 9B fully in unified memory at Q5_K_M (very good), using about 10 GB of the 10.7 GB available, at roughly 11 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Gemma 2 9B:
ollama run gemma2:9bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 9 GB here). You have room for Q5_K_M, which is very good: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.
Run it in the cloud
No Apple M4 (16GB)? Run Gemma 2 9B 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 10.7 GB the Apple M4 (16GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 10.7 GB of the 16 GB unified memory by default.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 21.9 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 13.2 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 11 GB | Too big | — | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 10 GB | Fits | ~11 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 9 GB | Fits | ~13 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 7.9 GB | Fits | ~16 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 6.9 GB | Fits | ~21 tok/s |
GPUs that run Gemma 2 9B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M4 (16GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M4 (16GB) run Gemma 2 9B?
Yes. The Apple M4 (16GB) can run Gemma 2 9B fully in unified memory at Q5_K_M (very good), using about 10 GB of the 10.7 GB available, at roughly 11 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Gemma 2 9B need?
About 9 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 21.9 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Gemma 2 9B on the Apple M4 (16GB)?
Roughly 11 tokens per second at Q5_K_M, estimated from the Apple M4 (16GB)'s 120 GB/s memory bandwidth.