Gemma 4 on Apple M1 · 8GB

❌ Won't fit — Gemma 4 12B @ Q4_K_M
Gemma 4 12B at Q4_K_M needs ~10.6 GB (weights 7.1 GB + KV 3.0 GB + overhead 512 MB @ 8K ctx) — more than your 2.9 GB usable of 8.0 GB unified. Try a smaller model or a lower quant.
quantneedsspeed
✗ Q8_015.8 GB—
✗ Q6_K13.0 GB—
✗ Q5_K_M11.7 GB—
✗ Q4_K_M10.6 GB—

Won't fit here — what hardware runs Gemma 4? →

runlocal verdict card
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Gemma 4: Won't fit
for your own README — links back here

Same model, other machines: Apple M1 Pro · Apple M2 · Apple M3 Pro · Apple M2 Pro · Apple M4 Pro · Apple M3 Max

Also runs on a Apple M1: DeepSeek-R1 (distill) · Qwen2.5 · Qwen3 · Llama 3.2 · Gemma 2

Best models for a Apple M1 · 8GB →

Architecturally similar

These share Gemma 4's KV-cache geometry — they size memory the same way, so here's how they fit on a Apple M1 · 8GB too:

modelsharesverdict here
Gemma 3 8kv/256hd ✅ Runs comfortably

Check any combo yourself: open the checker →