FitLocally by GPUwerk

Gemma · 12B

Can you run Gemma 3 12B Instruct locally?

Gemma 3 12B Instruct is a dense model with 12B parameters. At 4-bit or better it runs on 102 of the 120 hardware configurations listed here; the smallest is the RTX 5070 (12 GB). On a 128 GB DGX Spark it runs at Q4_K_M, at roughly 16 tokens per second (our est.).

Data as of 2 November 2026

Fastest machines for Gemma 3 12B Instruct

Every machine that runs it, fastest first. Filter by type; your machine is marked. Compare machines running it side by side

  1. 1RTX 5090Graphics card · 32 GB~161 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 31 GB
  2. 2RTX PRO 6000 BlackwellGraphics card · 96 GB~161 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 95 GB
  3. 32x RTX 5090Graphics card · 64 GB~154 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 62 GB
  4. 42x RTX PRO 6000 BlackwellGraphics card · 192 GB~154 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 190 GB
  5. 5M5 UltraMac · 96–512 GB · 5 variants~102 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  6. 6RTX 4090Graphics card · 24 GB~97 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 23 GB
  7. 7RTX 5080Graphics card · 16 GB~96 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  8. 82x RTX 4090Graphics card · 48 GB~94 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 46 GB
  9. 9RTX 3090 TiGraphics card · 24 GB~91 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 23 GB
  10. 10RTX 5070 TiGraphics card · 16 GB~91 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  11. 112x RTX 3090 TiGraphics card · 48 GB~89 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 46 GB
  12. 12RTX 3090Graphics card · 24 GB~86 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 23 GB
  13. 132x RTX 3090Graphics card · 48 GB~84 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 46 GB
  14. 14RX 7900 XTXGraphics card · 24 GB~79 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 23 GB
  15. 152x RX 7900 XTXGraphics card · 48 GB~77 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 46 GB
  16. 16RTX 4080 SUPERGraphics card · 16 GB~73 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  17. 17RTX 4080Graphics card · 16 GB~72 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  18. 18RTX 5070Graphics card · 12 GB~70 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 11.0 GB
  19. 19M3 UltraMac · 96–512 GB · 5 variants~69 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  20. 20RX 7900 XTGraphics card · 20 GB~68 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 19.0 GB
  21. 21RTX 4070 Ti SUPERGraphics card · 16 GB~68 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  22. 22M2 UltraMac · 64–192 GB · 7 variants~63 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  23. 23M5 MaxMac · 48–128 GB · 3 variants~60 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  24. 24RX 9070 XTGraphics card · 16 GB~59 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  25. 25M1 UltraMac · 64–128 GB · 4 variants~56 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  26. 26RTX 4070 TiGraphics card · 12 GB~52 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 11.0 GB
  27. 27RTX 4070 SUPERGraphics card · 12 GB~52 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 11.0 GB
  28. 28RTX 4070Graphics card · 12 GB~52 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 11.0 GB
  29. 29M4 MaxMac · 48–128 GB · 3 variants~50 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  30. 30RTX 5060 TiGraphics card · 16 GB~48 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  31. 31M5 Max · 36 GB · 32cMac · 36 GB~45 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 24 GB
  32. 32M3 MaxMac · 48–128 GB · 3 variants~39 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  33. 33M4 Max · 36 GB · 32cMac · 36 GB~38 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 24 GB
  34. 34M2 MaxMac · 32–96 GB · 5 variants~37 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  35. 35RTX 3060Graphics card · 12 GB~35 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 11.0 GB
  36. 36M5 ProMac · 24–64 GB · 6 variants~34 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  37. 37M1 MaxMac · 32–64 GB · 4 variants~33 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  38. 38RX 9060 XTGraphics card · 16 GB~33 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  39. 39RTX 4060 TiGraphics card · 16 GB~30 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  40. 40Tesla P100Graphics card · 16 GB~30 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  41. 41M3 MaxMac · 36–96 GB · 2 variants~29 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  42. 42M4 ProMac · 24–64 GB · 6 variants~28 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  43. 43Tesla T4Graphics card · 16 GB~26 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 15.0 GB
  44. 44Ryzen AI Max+ 395 · 128 GBAI mini PC · 128 GB~23 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 96 GB
  45. 45M2 Pro · 32 GBMac · 32 GB~21 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 21 GB
  46. 46M6Mac · 24–32 GB · 3 variants~20 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  47. 47M1 Pro · 32 GBMac · 32 GB~19 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 21 GB
  48. 48M5Mac · 24–32 GB · 4 variants~17 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  49. 49M3 ProMac · 18–36 GB · 2 variants~16 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  50. 50DGX Spark (GB10)AI mini PC · 128 GB~16 tok/s our est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 122 GB
  51. 51Ryzen AI Max+ 395 · 64 GBAI mini PC · 64 GB~15 tok/s our est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 48 GB
  52. 52M4Mac · 24–32 GB · 2 variants~13 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 GB
  53. 53M3 · 24 GBMac · 24 GB~11 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 16.0 GB
  54. 54M2 · 24 GBMac · 24 GB~10 tok/s ModelFit est.Q4_K_M · 10.7 of 16.0 GB
Too big for 18 machines

M2 Pro · 16 GB, M1 Pro · 16 GB, M6 · 16 GB · 12c, M6 · 16 GB · 10c, M5 · 16 GB · 10c, M5 · 16 GB · 8c, M4 · 16 GB, M3 · 16 GB, M2 · 16 GB, M1 · 16 GB, RTX 5060, RTX 4060, RTX 3070, RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 2070, M3 · 8 GB, M2 · 8 GB, M1 · 8 GB. Gemma 3 12B Instruct needs about 10.7 GB at its smallest build.

Speeds are single-user decode estimates, not measurements. "ModelFit est." comes from ModelFit's model fitted on published runs (CC BY 4.0); "our est." is memory bandwidth divided by bytes read per token, times 0.55. Memory is what the best build needs, against what the machine can give a model. Method

About the model

Parameters
12B
Active per token
12B
Type
Dense
Good for
Chat, Quality

Builds and how to run them

QuantizationLoadMin. RAMCommand
Q4_K_M9.5 GB16 GBollama run gemma3:12b

Load, minimum RAM and Ollama commands: ModelFit, CC BY 4.0. Load is memory with the model loaded, before long contexts.

Questions

Can I run Gemma 3 12B Instruct on a Mac?

Yes on a Mac with enough memory: the smallest Apple configuration listed here that runs it at 4-bit or better is the M3 Pro · 18 GB.

How much memory does Gemma 3 12B Instruct need?

About 10.7 GB at the smallest build in our data, including a margin for the runtime and an 8K-token context. Longer contexts need more.

Does Gemma 3 12B Instruct run on a DGX Spark?

Yes, at Q4_K_M. The Spark has 128 GB of unified memory, about 121.6 GB usable.