Gemma 2 9B Instruct on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified)
Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified) can run Gemma 2 9B Instruct at 13 tok/s at Q4_K_M, though performance is acceptable. Consider a higher-end GPU for better results.
Model Size
9.24B
Device VRAM
18 GB
Bandwidth
150 GB/s
Quantizations Tested
1
Performance by Quantization
Each row shows Gemma 2 9B Instruct performance at a different quality level on Apple M3 Pro (18GB Unified).
| 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 strong 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 →Source: MLX performance estimates (2026-03-15)
Data last updated: 2026-03-01