Can the Apple M4 Pro (48GB) run Gemma 3 12B?
- FP16
- Q8_0
- Q6_K
- Q5_K_M
- Q4_K_M
- Q3_K_M
- Q2_K
Yes. The Apple M4 Pro (48GB) can run Gemma 3 12B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 28.2 GB of the 36 GB available, at roughly 7 tokens/second.
Run it with Ollama
With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Gemma 3 12B:
ollama run gemma3:12bOllama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 11.2 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 Pro (48GB)
Run it in the cloud
No Apple M4 Pro (48GB)? Run Gemma 3 12B 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 36 GB the Apple M4 Pro (48GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 36 GB of the 48 GB unified memory by default.
| Quant | Quality | Memory | Fits? | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP16 | Full quality | 28.2 GB | Fits | ~7 tok/s | |
| Q8_0 | Near-lossless | 16.8 GB | Fits | ~13 tok/s | |
| Q6_K | Excellent | 13.8 GB | Fits | ~16 tok/s | |
| Q5_K_M | Very good | 12.5 GB | Fits | ~19 tok/s | |
| Q4_K_M | Good, most popular | 11.2 GB | Fits | ~22 tok/s | |
| Q3_K_M | Noticeably degraded | 9.8 GB | Fits | ~27 tok/s | |
| Q2_K | Heavily degraded | 8.4 GB | Fits | ~36 tok/s |
GPUs that run Gemma 3 12B comfortably
Models that run well on the Apple M4 Pro (48GB)
Frequently asked questions
Can Apple M4 Pro (48GB) run Gemma 3 12B?
Yes. The Apple M4 Pro (48GB) can run Gemma 3 12B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 28.2 GB of the 36 GB available, at roughly 7 tokens/second.
How much VRAM does Gemma 3 12B need?
About 11.2 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 28.2 GB at full FP16 precision.
How fast is Gemma 3 12B on the Apple M4 Pro (48GB)?
Roughly 7 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M4 Pro (48GB)'s 273 GB/s memory bandwidth.