Gemma 2 27B Instruct on Apple M4 Max (36GB Unified)
Apple M4 Max (36GB Unified) handles Gemma 2 27B Instruct well at 15 tok/s at Q5_K_M. A solid choice for this model.
Model Size
27.23B
Device VRAM
36 GB
Bandwidth
546 GB/s
Quantizations Tested
1
Performance by Quantization
Each row shows Gemma 2 27B Instruct performance at a different quality level on Apple M4 Max (36GB Unified).
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q5_K_M | 15 tok/s | 600ms | ✓ Yes | Good | estimated |
Notes
Q5_K_M
Q5 at 18.5GB in 36GB. Good quality with headroom for a small concurrent model.
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 M4 Max (36GB Unified)
Apple M4 Max (36GB Unified) has 36 GB at 546 GB/s. Available in MacBook Pro 16", Mac Studio.
See all models Apple M4 Max (36GB Unified) can run →Source: MLX performance estimates (2026-01-15)
Data last updated: 2026-03-01