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Can I run gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF on a Mac with 48 GB?

Yes

Its gemma-4-12b-it-BF16 file (23.8 GB) fits in the 36.0 GB a Mac with 48 GB can use, with room for ≈ 86K tokens of context.

Full analysis of gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF Everything that runs on Mac with 48 GB Get the gemma-4-12b-it-BF16 file on Hugging Face
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF

Files and context on Mac with 48 GB

Each file of gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF (and of GGUF versions the site has analyzed), and how much context fits next to it, with the context cache in 16-bit or 8-bit.

FileSizeOn Mac with 48 GB Context (16-bit)Context (8-bit)
gemma-4-12b-it-BF1623.8 GBFits86K176K
UD-Q8_K_XL13.6 GBFits162K256K
gemma-4-12b-it-Q8_012.7 GBFits169K256K
UD-Q6_K_XL10.7 GBFits184K256K
Q6_K9.79 GBFits190K256K
UD-Q5_K_XL8.61 GBFits199K256K
Q5_K_M8.41 GBFits201K256K
Q5_K_S8.20 GBFits202K256K
Q4_17.40 GBFits208K256K
UD-Q4_K_XL7.37 GBFits208K256K
Q4_K_M7.12 GBFits210K256K
Q4_K_S6.76 GBFits213K256K
Q4_06.74 GBFits213K256K
IQ4_NL6.72 GBFits213K256K
IQ4_XS6.38 GBFits216K256K
UD-Q3_K_XL6.02 GBFits218K256K
Q3_K_M5.69 GBFits221K256K
Q3_K_S5.14 GBFits225K256K
UD-Q2_K_XL4.66 GBFits228K256K
UD-IQ3_XXS4.64 GBFits229K256K
UD-IQ2_M4.21 GBFits232K256K

gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF on other hardware

Popular models that run on Mac with 48 GB

Assumes 75% of the Mac's memory is usable (macOS's default limit for the GPU; it can be raised) and at least 4K tokens of context for one conversation, with the context cache in 16-bit unless noted. Fits leaves at least 20% of that memory for context; Tight leaves less.