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Can the Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Gemma 2 27B?

Apple M4 Max (128GB) × Gemma 2 27B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at FP1658.1 GB of 96 GB
Weights 54.4 GBKV cache 3.1 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantFP16Full quality
Memory58.1 GBof 96 GB usable
Speed~6tokens 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 M4 Max (128GB) can run Gemma 2 27B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 58.1 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 6 tokens/second.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Gemma 2 27B:

ollama run gemma2:27b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 20.2 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 M4 Max (128GB)

Run it in the cloud

No Apple M4 Max (128GB)? Run Gemma 2 27B 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 96 GB the Apple M4 Max (128GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 96 GB of the 128 GB unified memory by default.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality58.1 GBFits~6 tok/s
Q8_0Near-lossless32.6 GBFits~11 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent26 GBFits~15 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good23 GBFits~17 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular20.2 GBFits~20 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded17 GBFits~25 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded13.9 GBFits~32 tok/s

GPUs that run Gemma 2 27B comfortably

Models that run well on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Gemma 2 27B?

Yes. The Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run Gemma 2 27B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 58.1 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 6 tokens/second.

How much VRAM does Gemma 2 27B need?

About 20.2 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 58.1 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Gemma 2 27B on the Apple M4 Max (128GB)?

Roughly 6 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M4 Max (128GB)'s 546 GB/s memory bandwidth.