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Can the Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Gemma 4 26B-A4B?

Apple M4 Max (128GB) × Gemma 4 26B-A4B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at FP1652.5 GB of 96 GB
Weights 51.6 GBKV cache 0.3 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantFP16Full quality
Speed~43tokens 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 M4 Max (128GB) can run Gemma 4 26B-A4B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 52.5 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 43 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 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 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 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 quality52.5 GBFits~43 tok/s
Q8_0Near-lossless28.3 GBFits~81 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent22 GBFits~105 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good19.2 GBFits~121 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular16.5 GBFits~142 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded13.5 GBFits~176 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded10.6 GBFits~230 tok/s

Measured speed from real Apple M4 Max (128GB) owners

Tokens per second that people measured on their own Apple M4 Max (128GB), next to our estimate.

No one has measured Gemma 4 26B-A4B on the Apple M4 Max (128GB) yet. The speeds above are estimates. Run the benchmark and yours becomes the first real number on this page.

Have an Apple M4 Max (128GB)? 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 M4 Max (128GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M4 Max (128GB) run Gemma 4 26B-A4B?

Yes. The Apple M4 Max (128GB) can run Gemma 4 26B-A4B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 52.5 GB of the 96 GB available, at roughly 43 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 M4 Max (128GB)?

Roughly 43 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M4 Max (128GB)'s 546 GB/s memory bandwidth.