Gemma 4 12B needs ~16.8 GB VRAM. NVIDIA A30 24GB has 24.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~104 tok/s.
Operating mode
Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.
Current mode
Balanced
Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.
Select quantization to explore
Fit status
Runs well
Decode
104.4 tok/s
TTFT
1855 ms
Safe context
36K
Memory
16.8 GB / 24.0 GB
This setup is broadly balanced for this model.
No major red flags
This recommendation has enough memory headroom and acceptable estimated speed for the selected workload.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | S | Runs well | 104.4 tok/s | 1012 ms | 36K |
| Coding | S | Runs well | 104.4 tok/s | 1855 ms | 36K |
| Agentic Coding | S | Tight fit | 104.4 tok/s | 2698 ms | 36K |
| Reasoning | S | Runs well | 104.4 tok/s | 2192 ms | 36K |
| RAG | S | Tight fit | 104.4 tok/s | 3372 ms | 36K |
Inference speed
Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for Gemma 4 12B at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~168 tok/s. Speed is memory-bandwidth bound, so cards that fit the whole model in VRAM run far faster than ones that offload to system RAM.
| GPU / Mac | Memory | Quant | Speed (tok/s) | Fits? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 GB | Q4_K_M | 168.0 | Fits | |
| 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 109.9 | Fits | |
RX 7900 XTX 24GB | 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 99.1 | Fits |
| 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 94.0 | Fits | |
| 16 GB | Q4_K_M | 87.6 | Offloads | |
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB | 256 GB | Q4_K_M | 60.5 | Fits |
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 50.4 | Fits |
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 47.8 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 43.4 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 34.4 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 32.9 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 31.6 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB | 48 GB | Q4_K_M | 26.5 | Fits |
| 12 GB | Q4_K_M | 23.5 | Too big | |
| 12 GB | Q4_K_M | 14.8 | Too big | |
| 8 GB | Q4_K_M | 5.5 | Too big |
Estimates for single-stream decoding at Q4_K_M; real tokens/sec varies with prompt length, context, batch size, and runtime build. Prompt processing (prefill) is faster than the decode figures shown here.
How Gemma 4 12B (12B params) fits at each quantization level on NVIDIA A30 24GB (24.0 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 4.7 GB | Low | A77 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 5.9 GB | Low | A77 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 6.7 GB | Medium | A78 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 7.3 GB | Medium | A78 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 8.6 GB | High | A79 |
Q6_K | 6 | 9.8 GB | High | A80 |
Q8_0Best for your GPU | 8 | 12.8 GB | Very High | A82 |
F16 | 16 | 24.6 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Copy-paste commands to run Gemma 4 12B on your machine.
Run
lms load gemma-4-12B-it && lms server startYour hardware
| Model | Params | Grade | Decode | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30.5B | S | 110 tok/s | ||
| 27B | S | 47.7 tok/s | ||
| 27B | S | 47.9 tok/s | ||
| 30B | S | 113.8 tok/s | ||
| 35B | A | 61.6 tok/s |
Yes, NVIDIA A30 24GB can run Gemma 4 12B with a S grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 104.4 tok/s.
Gemma 4 12B (12B parameters) requires approximately 16.8 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Gemma 4 12B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On NVIDIA A30 24GB, Gemma 4 12B achieves approximately 104.4 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 1855ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Gemma 4 12B on NVIDIA A30 24GB receives a S grade with 104.4 tok/s and 36K context.
On NVIDIA A30 24GB, Gemma 4 12B can safely use up to 36K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 262K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
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