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Can the Apple M5 (16GB) run Gemma 4 26B-A4B?

Apple M5 (16GB) × Gemma 4 26B-A4B8K context
Yes, with heavy quantizationFits only at a low-quality quant
Memory at Q2_K10.6 GB of 10.7 GB
Weights 9.7 GBKV cache 0.3 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantQ2_KHeavily degraded
Speed~64tokens per second
Max context21Ktokens that fit at Q2_K
  1. FP16
  2. Q8_0
  3. Q6_K
  4. Q5_K_M
  5. Q4_K_M
  6. Q3_K_M
  7. Q2_K

Only just. Gemma 4 26B-A4B fits on the Apple M5 (16GB) at Q2_K, which costs noticeable quality. Expect about 64 tokens/second. A card with more memory is a better experience.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

Ollama's default gemma4:26b download is Q4_K_M, which needs about 16.5 GB, more than the 10.7 GB available. Download the Q2_K GGUF instead (LM Studio lists quants per model), or try a smaller context length.

New to this? Step-by-step setup for the Apple M5 (16GB)

Run it in the cloud

Want full quality? Run Gemma 4 26B-A4B on a bigger rented GPU.

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Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 10.7 GB the Apple M5 (16GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 10.7 GB of the 16 GB unified memory by default.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality52.5 GBToo big—
Q8_0Near-lossless28.3 GBToo big—
Q6_KExcellent22 GBToo big—
Q5_K_MVery good19.2 GBToo big—
Q4_K_MGood, most popular16.5 GBToo big—
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded13.5 GBToo big—
Q2_KHeavily degraded10.6 GBFits~64 tok/s

Measured speed from real Apple M5 (16GB) owners

Tokens per second that people measured on their own Apple M5 (16GB), next to our estimate.

No one has measured Gemma 4 26B-A4B on the Apple M5 (16GB) yet. The speeds above are estimates. Run the benchmark and yours becomes the first real number on this page.

Have an Apple M5 (16GB)? 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

Check Radeon RX 7900 XT prices

Models that run well on the Apple M5 (16GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M5 (16GB) run Gemma 4 26B-A4B?

Only just. Gemma 4 26B-A4B fits on the Apple M5 (16GB) at Q2_K, which costs noticeable quality. Expect about 64 tokens/second. A card with more memory is a better experience.

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 M5 (16GB)?

Roughly 64 tokens per second at Q2_K, estimated from the Apple M5 (16GB)'s 153 GB/s memory bandwidth.