Gemma 2 27B Instruct on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) cannot run Gemma 2 27B Instruct at any quantization level. The 18 GB of VRAM is insufficient.
Model Size
27.23B
Device VRAM
18 GB
Bandwidth
150 GB/s
Quantizations Tested
1
Performance by Quantization
Each row shows Gemma 2 27B Instruct performance at a different quality level on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified).
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | — | — | ✗ Offload | Not Viable | estimated |
Notes
Q4_K_M
Q4 16.3GB exceeds 14GB effective. Doesn't fit.
About Gemma 2 27B Instruct
Gemma 2 27B Instruct (27.23B) is a chat, coding, reasoning, multi-purpose model. Google's 27B model with excellent knowledge distillation. Strong reasoning and coding capabilities at a size that fits on a single 24GB GPU at Q4. Limited to 8K context.
View all Gemma 2 27B Instruct hardware options →About Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) has 18 GB at 150 GB/s. Available in MacBook Pro 14", MacBook Pro 16".
See all models Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) can run →Source: MLX performance estimates (2026-03-15)
Data last updated: 2026-03-01