Can I Run Gemma 4 26B A4B on a Apple M3 (16GB)?
Runs at Q4_0 — good quality with reasonable headroom.
4 quantizations fit your 16.0GB
| Quant | Min VRAM | Recommended | File size | Headroom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_0BEST | 15.9 GB | 17.4 GB | 14.6 GB | +0.1 GB |
| Q3_K_L | 12.8 GB | 14.3 GB | 13.8 GB | +3.2 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 12.1 GB | 13.6 GB | 12.7 GB | +3.9 GB |
| Q2_K | 9.7 GB | 11.2 GB | 10.6 GB | +6.3 GB |
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Top-ranked open-source models that fit in 16.0GB.
FAQ
Can the Apple M3 (16GB) run Gemma 4 26B A4B?
Yes. The Apple M3 (16GB)'s 16.0GB of unified memory is enough to run Gemma 4 26B A4B at Q4_0 quantization (15.9GB required).
What's the best quantization to use?
Q4_0 is the highest-precision quantization that fits in your 16.0GB. It uses about 15.9GB of memory and 17.4GB recommended for comfortable inference.
What if I need more headroom for context length?
KV cache memory grows with context length. The numbers above assume a baseline 2K-4K context. For long-context use (32K+), add another 2-6GB depending on the model architecture.