Will it run? / Gemma 4 E4B / Mac mini M6 (16GB)

Can the Mac mini M6 (16GB) run Gemma 4 E4B?

Usable, but slow Yes, at about 8.5 tokens/sec (estimated). It works, but you'll wait on longer answers. It only fits if you raise the GPU memory limit, and it'll be slower than usual.

8.5estimated tokens/sec
11.1 GBmemory needed
10.7 GBavailable to the model
170 GB/smemory bandwidth
ollama run gemma4:e4b

Check the Mac mini M6 (16GB) price →

How we got this number

Each generated token reads the whole model from memory once: 9.6 GB. The Mac mini M6 (16GB) moves 170 GB/s, so the ceiling is 18 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 4 E4B

Mac Studio M5 Ultra (96GB)102 tok/s$5,499Check price →
Mac Studio M5 Ultra (256GB)102 tok/s$9,499Check price →
Mac Studio M5 Max (40-core GPU, 64GB)51 tok/s$3,799Check price →
Mac mini M5 Pro (24GB)26 tok/s$1,699Check price →

Other models on the Mac mini M6 (16GB)

lfm 2.5 8B (A1B)Fast111 tok/s
Llama 3.2 3BFast68 tok/s
orca mini 3BFast68 tok/s
Granite 3.1 moe 3BFast68 tok/s
falcon 3 3BFast68 tok/s
Granite 4.1 3BFast65 tok/s