Can Mac mini M4 32GB run gemma-3-27b-it?

Apple · 32 GB LPDDR5X · 120 GB/s bandwidth · google · 27.4B · model ctx up to NoneK

METAL

Yes — the Mac mini M4 32GB (32 GB LPDDR5X) can run gemma-3-27b-it. At Q4 with the default 8K context it needs ≈ 21.55 GB VRAM (weights 15.07 GB + KV cache 5.48 GB + 1 GB runtime overhead), which fits within 32 GB. Decode at Q4/8K: ≈ 2.8 tok/s (estimated, batch 1). FP16 needs ≈ 61.28 GB — does not fit on this card. Estimates come from memory-bandwidth math; rows tagged measured override estimates. Relative ranking is more reliable than absolute tok/s. Methodology. Buy Mac mini M4 32GB on Amazon →

Fit & speed by quant and context

Quant	Context	VRAM needed	Fits?	tok/s (decode)
Q4	4K	18.81 GB	Yes	2.8 ± est.
Q4	8K default	21.55 GB	Yes	2.8 ± est.
Q4	32K	37.99 GB	No	5.6 ± est.
FP16	4K	58.54 GB	No	0.7 ± est.
FP16	8K default	61.28 GB	No	0.6 ± est.
FP16	32K	77.72 GB	No	0.4 ± est.

Fits = weights + KV(ctx) + 1 GB overhead ≤ 95% of VRAM. Measured anchors are context-agnostic; the fit verdict is recomputed per context. A missing tok/s means the model is far beyond this card (offload-only territory).

VRAM breakdown at 8K context

Quant	Weights	KV cache	Overhead	Total needed	Mac mini M4 32GB VRAM
Q4	15.07 GB	5.48 GB	1 GB	21.55 GB	32 GB
FP16	54.8 GB	5.48 GB	1 GB	61.28 GB	32 GB

Other GPUs that run gemma-3-27b-it

• B200 192GB SXM — ≈185.8 tok/s Q4 est.
• MI300X 192GB — ≈123.1 tok/s Q4 est.
• H200 141GB SXM5 — ≈111.5 tok/s Q4 est.
• H100 80GB SXM5 — ≈77.8 tok/s Q4 est.
• Gaudi 3 128GB — ≈76.1 tok/s Q4 est.
• A100 80GB SXM4 — ≈47.4 tok/s Q4 est.
• RTX 5090 32GB — ≈41.6 tok/s Q4 est.
• RTX 4090 24GB — ≈23.4 tok/s Q4 est.

All GPUs for gemma-3-27b-it →

Other models for the Mac mini M4 32GB

• MiniCPM5-1B — ≈70.7 tok/s Q4 est.
• Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct — ≈41.3 tok/s Q4 measured
• Qwen3.5-2B — ≈38.2 tok/s Q4 est.
• DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B-layer-mix-bpw-3.8-mlx — ≈33.2 tok/s Q4 est.
• Qwen3.6-35B-A3B — ≈25.5 tok/s Q4 est.
• Qwen3.5-35B-A3B — ≈25.5 tok/s Q4 est.
• GLM-4.7-Flash — ≈25.5 tok/s Q4 est.
• Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 — ≈25.5 tok/s Q4 est.

All models on the Mac mini M4 32GB →