Can I run it?
Can I run gemma 4 12b it on Apple M3 Pro?
Tight fit
Tight fit fully in unified memory on your Apple M3 Pro at UD-Q6_K_XL, 8K context, about 5.9–8.1 tok/s. Weights 9.95 GB plus 0.81 GB of KV cache — 11.2 GB of 13.0 GB usable. Up to 32K context still fits.
Best quantUD-Q6_K_XL
Working context8K
Max that fits32K
Speed5.9–8.1 tok/sEstimate from memory bandwidth, not a benchmark. Method.
Weights9.95 GB
KV cache0.81 GB
Total11.2 GB
Usable13.0 GB
gemma 4 12b it details · Apple M3 Pro page · How this estimate is made
Run commands
llama.cpp
llama-server -hf unsloth/gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF:UD-Q6_K_XL -c 8192 -ngl 48
Ollama
ollama run gemma
LM Studio
lms get unsloth/gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF # Then load quant UD-Q6_K_XL
Assumptions
- Estimate from memory bandwidth, not a benchmark. Decode speed uses 55–75% of peak bandwidth.
- KV cache is FP16. Engine overhead assumes llama.cpp (0.3 GB + 1% of the weights). Ollama is closer to 0.9 GB + 3%, LM Studio closer to 1 GB + 3%.
- UD-Q6_K_XL size is the real GGUF file size from Hugging Face.
- Unified memory uses 75% for the GPU by default, and always leaves about 5 GB for the OS.
- Speed is quoted at 8K context, not at the maximum context that still fits.
Larger models that also fit
- Can I run Qwen3.8 27B on Apple M3 Pro? — Tight fit, UD-IQ3_S, 6.6–8.9 tok/s (estimate)
- Can I run Qwen3.6 35B A3B on Apple M3 Pro? — Tight fit, UD-Q2_K_XL, 16–22 tok/s (estimate)
- Can I run gemma 4 26B A4B it on Apple M3 Pro? — Tight fit, Q3_K_M, 13–18 tok/s (estimate)
Updated 2026-10-24. Profile on this page is the device default.