GoogleGemma 2 9B Instruct on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
M3 Pro (18GB Unified) runs Gemma 2 9B Instruct at Q4_K_M — 13 tok/s. Usable on 18 GB VRAM — see full quantization options below.
Model Size
9.24B
Device VRAM
18 GB
Bandwidth
150 GB/s
Quantization
Q4_K_M
Performance by Quantization
OwnRig currently has one published compatibility entry for Gemma 2 9B Instruct on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) at Q4_K_M. This is the best supported pairing we can stand behind today.
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | 13 tok/s | 450ms | ✓ Yes | Acceptable | estimated |
Notes
Q4_K_M
Slower than M4 Pro. Usable for chat and light coding.
About Gemma 2 9B Instruct
Gemma 2 9B Instruct (9.24B) is a chat, coding, reasoning, multi-purpose model. Google's 9B model with effective knowledge distillation. Competitive with Llama 3.1 8B on most benchmarks. Shorter max context (8K) is the main limitation vs Llama.
View all Gemma 2 9B 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 →Estimate method: MLX performance estimates. Reference hardware source: github.com (2026-03-15)
Performance varies by driver version, inference engine, quantization method, context length, and system configuration. Figures shown are estimates based on community benchmarks and may not reflect your exact setup. Product names are trademarks of their respective owners. OwnRig is independent and not affiliated with any hardware or AI model provider.