Will it run? / Gemma 2 27B / Mac mini M4 (16GB)

Can the Mac mini M4 (16GB) run Gemma 2 27B?

Won't fit No. Gemma 2 27B needs about 17.5 GB of memory, and the Mac mini M4 (16GB) can give a model about 10.7 GB. You'd need a machine with more memory, or a smaller model.

–estimated tokens/sec
17.5 GBmemory needed
10.7 GBavailable to the model
120 GB/smemory bandwidth

Check the Mac mini M4 (16GB) price →

How we got this number

Each generated token reads the whole model from memory once: 16 GB. The Mac mini M4 (16GB) moves 120 GB/s, so the ceiling is 7.5 tokens/sec. Real machines reach a fraction of that ceiling; we use 80%, calibrated against a measured Mac run. Send us your real numbers and we'll replace the estimate.

Faster machines for Gemma 2 27B

Mac Studio M5 Ultra (96GB)61 tok/s$5,499Check price →
Mac Studio M5 Ultra (256GB)61 tok/s$9,499Check price →
Mac Studio M5 Max (40-core GPU, 64GB)31 tok/s$3,799Check price →
Mac mini M5 Pro (64GB)15 tok/sCheck price →

Other models on the Mac mini M4 (16GB)

lfm 2.5 8B (A1B)Fast78 tok/s
Gemma 3 4BFast29 tok/s
Qwen 3-VL 4BFast29 tok/s
translateGemma 4BFast29 tok/s
Qwen3.5 4BFast28 tok/s
Llama 2 7BFast25 tok/s