Gemma 4 on Apple M3 Max · 36GB

✅ Runs comfortably — Gemma 4 12B @ Q8_0
Gemma 4 12B at Q8_0 needs ~15.8 GB (weights 12.2 GB + KV 3.0 GB + overhead 626 MB @ 8K ctx) of your 21.1 GB usable (of 36.0 GB unified memory) — plenty of headroom. Expect ~12–19 tok/s (usable).
context @ Q8_0: comfortable to 8K · runs to 32K · won't fit past that on this rig
quantneedsspeed
✓ Q8_015.8 GB~12–19 tok/s (usable)
✓ Q6_K13.0 GB~14–25 tok/s (usable)
✓ Q5_K_M11.7 GB~16–25 tok/s (fast)
✓ Q4_K_M10.6 GB~17–30 tok/s (fast)
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Gemma 4: Runs comfortably
for your own README — links back here

Same model, other machines: Apple M1 · Apple M1 Pro · Apple M2 · Apple M3 Pro · Apple M2 Pro · Apple M4 Pro

Also runs on a Apple M3 Max: Qwen3 · DeepSeek-R1 (distill) · Qwen2.5 · Gemma 3 · Mistral Small 3

Best models for a Apple M3 Max · 36GB →

Architecturally similar

These share Gemma 4's KV-cache geometry — they size memory the same way, so here's how they fit on a Apple M3 Max · 36GB too:

modelsharesverdict here
Gemma 2 8kv/256hd ✅ Runs (tight)

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