Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated March 12, 2025
Yes — comfortably
Yes, comfortably — Gemma 3 27B Instruct at Q6_K needs about 31.3 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB), leaving ~16.7 GB spare and running at ~5.6 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 16,384 tokens of context.
Confidence: high · Recommended quantization: Q6_K · Estimated speed: ~5.6 tok/s
| Usable memory for models | 48 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 273 GB/s |
| Form factor | Mini PC |
| Operating system | macOS |
| Memory upgradeable | No — soldered |
| Quant | Memory needed | Fits 48 GB? | Max context | Est. speed | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F16 | 63.1 GB | ✗ No | — | — | 54 GB |
| Q8_0 | 37.8 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~4.5 tok/s | 28.7 GB |
| Q6_K | 31.3 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~5.6 tok/s | 22.1 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 28.3 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~6.3 tok/s | 19.1 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 25.4 GB | ✓ Yes | 16K | ~7.2 tok/s | 16.3 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 20.6 GB | ✓ Yes | 32K | ~9.3 tok/s | 11.5 GB |
| Q2_K | 18 GB | ✓ Yes | 32K | ~11.1 tok/s | 8.9 GB |
| Variant | Needs at Q4_K_M | Fits? | Est. speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemma 3 27B Instruct | 25.4 GB | ✓ Fits | ~7.2 tok/s |
| Gemma 3 12B Instruct | 11.1 GB | ✓ Fits | ~16.2 tok/s |
| Gemma 3 4B Instruct | 4.4 GB | ✓ Fits | ~43.6 tok/s |
| Gemma 3 1B Instruct | 2 GB | ✓ Fits | ~110.5 tok/s |
Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput
Yes, comfortably — Gemma 3 27B Instruct at Q6_K needs about 31.3 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB), leaving ~16.7 GB spare and running at ~5.6 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 16,384 tokens of context.
Q6_K — it needs about 31.3 GB of the 48 GB available, downloads as roughly 22.1 GB, and runs at an estimated 5.6 tokens/sec with up to 16K of context.
Nothing binding — the model fits with headroom and generates at a usable speed on this hardware.
Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput