Gemma 3 27B on Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified)
Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified) handles Gemma 3 27B well at 12 tok/s at Q8_0. A solid choice for this model.
Model Size
27.23B
Device VRAM
128 GB
Bandwidth
546 GB/s
Quantizations Tested
1
Performance by Quantization
Each row shows Gemma 3 27B performance at a different quality level on Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified).
| Quantization | Speed | TTFT | Fits in VRAM | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q8_0 | 12 tok/s | 700ms | ✓ Yes | Good | estimated |
Notes
Q8_0
Full Q8_0 (29.5GB) fits with massive headroom. Bandwidth limits speed but quality is maximal.
About Gemma 3 27B
Gemma 3 27B (27.23B) is a chat, coding, reasoning, multi-purpose model. Google's strongest open-weight model. Excellent reasoning and instruction following. At 27B parameters, it's the sweet spot between 8B models (too limited) and 70B models (too expensive). Strong multilingual support. Fits on 24GB GPUs at Q4.
View all Gemma 3 27B hardware options →About Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified)
Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified) has 128 GB at 546 GB/s. Available in MacBook Pro 16", Mac Studio.
See all models Apple M4 Max (128GB Unified) can run →Source: MLX performance estimates (2026-03-15)
Data last updated: 2026-03-15