{"id":520215,"date":"2026-04-05T17:10:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T00:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/?p=520215"},"modified":"2026-04-15T18:10:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:10:33","slug":"what-kind-of-computer-do-i-need-to-run-gemma-4-locally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/what-kind-of-computer-do-i-need-to-run-gemma-4-locally\/","title":{"rendered":"What Kind of Computer Do I need to run Gemma 4 Locally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns has-theme-palette-7-background-color has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Part of: <strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/series-ai-learnings\/\">AI Learning Series Here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kadence-column395113_43ef2d-d5 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column395113_43ef2d-d5 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column395113_43ef2d-d5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column395113_43ef2d-d5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column395113_43ef2d-d5 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column395113_43ef2d-d5 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column395113_43ef2d-d5{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column395113_43ef2d-d5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 767px){.kadence-column395113_43ef2d-d5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column395113_43ef2d-d5\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28\"]{font-size:var(--global-kb-font-size-sm, 0.9rem);font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28 mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28 img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading510545_6813a5-28\">Quick Links:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/resources-for-learning-ai\/\">Resources for Learning AI<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/keeping-up-with-ai\/\">Keep up with AI<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/list-of-ai-tools\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"402818\">List of AI Tools<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-template-part\"><style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading395113_c650df-47, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading395113_c650df-47[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading395113_c650df-47\"]{text-align:center;font-size:var(--global-kb-font-size-md, 1.25rem);line-height:60px;font-style:normal;background-color:#f5a511;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading395113_c650df-47 mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading395113_c650df-47[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading395113_c650df-47\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading395113_c650df-47 img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading395113_c650df-47[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading395113_c650df-47\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading395113_c650df-47 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading395113_c650df-47\">Subscribe to <a href=\"https:\/\/go.35s.be\/jtb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>JorgeTechBits  newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong><em>To learn more about Local AI topics, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/local-ai-series\/\">related posts in the Lo<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/local-ai-series\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cal AI Series<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84\"]{font-size:var(--global-kb-font-size-sm, 0.9rem);font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84 mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84 img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading519190_4a1b6f-84\">AI Disclaimer I love exploring new technology, and that includes using AI to help with research and editing! My digital &#8220;team&#8221; includes tools like Google Gemini, Notebook LM, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity.ai, Claude.ai, and others as needed. They help me gather insights and polish content\u2014so you get the best, most up-to-date information possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I just posted yesterday <a href=\"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/local-ai-sovereignty-deploying-ollama-gemma-4-openwebui-and-n8n\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"520212\">Local AI Sovereignty: Deploying Ollama, Gemma 4, OpenWebUI, and n8n<\/a>  and I used Gemma 4 locally on Ollama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Someone asked me a good question:   What size computer (Windows PC) do I need tor it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What size computer do you need for Gemma 4?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"p-rc_255549ce09c386b7-40\">Google\u2019s April 2026 release of Gemma 4 changed the game by introducing <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/understanding-llm-mixture-of-experts-moe\/\">Mixture of Experts (MoE)<\/a><\/strong> and <strong>Effective (E)<\/strong> models. This means you can run much smarter AI on much smaller hardware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hardware Requirements: Gemma 4 Variants<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><td><strong>Model Variant<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Best Device<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>RAM Needed (4-bit)<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Why it\u2019s special<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Gemma 4 E2B<\/strong><\/td><td>Phones \/ Tablets \/ Raspberry Pi 5<\/td><td><strong>~3-4 GB<\/strong><\/td><td>Includes native audio &amp; vision support.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Gemma 4 E4B<\/strong><\/td><td>Laptops \/ Mini-PCs<\/td><td><strong>~6-8 GB<\/strong><\/td><td>The &#8220;Sweet Spot&#8221; for fast, local coding help.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Gemma 4 26B MoE<\/strong><\/td><td>Ryzen AI \/ Mac M-Series \/ RTX 4070<\/td><td><strong>~16-18 GB<\/strong><\/td><td>Uses 128 &#8220;experts.&#8221; Fast as a 4B model, smart as a 26B.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Gemma 4 31B Dense<\/strong><\/td><td>High-end Laptops \/ 64GB RAM PCs<\/td><td><strong>~22-24 GB<\/strong><\/td><td>The most powerful open-source model in its class.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">CPU vs. GPU: The 2026 Reality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past, running on a CPU was &#8220;painfully slow.&#8221; However, if you are using a <strong>Ryzen AI<\/strong> processor or an <strong>Apple M-series<\/strong> chip, the line is blurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>GPU\/NPU (Fast):<\/strong> Provides instant, &#8220;streaming&#8221; text (15-50+ tokens per second).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>CPU (Slower):<\/strong> On modern 2026 hardware, you might get 3-8 tokens per second. It\u2019s no longer &#8220;30 seconds for a sentence,&#8221; but it\u2019s more like a steady typewriter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>So &#8220;CPU\/RAM Alternative&#8221; means:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your regular laptop\/desktop&nbsp;<em>can<\/em>&nbsp;run the 4B Gemma model using its normal memory (16GB RAM) instead of buying a graphics card. But it&#8217;s painfully slow \u2014 you might wait 30 seconds for a sentence instead of getting instant responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When is CPU okay?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Testing or experimentation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Batch processing (not real-time chat)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When you absolutely cannot buy a GPU<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Secret Sauce: 4-Bit Quantization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You might wonder how a &#8220;massive&#8221; model with 31 billion parameters can fit into 20GB of RAM when, mathematically, it should take up over 60GB. The secret is <strong>4-bit Quantization<\/strong>. Think of this like converting a high-resolution, uncompressed RAW photo into a high-quality JPEG. We are shrinking the &#8220;precision&#8221; of the model&#8217;s numbers from 16-bit to 4-bit. While this sounds like a huge loss, modern LLMs are incredibly resilient; you get a <strong>75% reduction in size<\/strong> and a massive boost in speed, with only a <strong>2-3% impact on intelligence<\/strong>. This is what transforms a model that previously required an enterprise data center into something that runs smoothly on your laptop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Verdict for your PC:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>16GB RAM:<\/strong> You can run <strong>E2B<\/strong> and <strong>E4B<\/strong> flawlessly while doing other work.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>32GB RAM:<\/strong> You can run the <strong>26B MoE<\/strong> comfortably\u2014this is the &#8220;Gold Standard&#8221; for local AI sovereignty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>64GB RAM:<\/strong> You can run the massive <strong>31B Dense<\/strong> model and still have plenty of room for your Docker stack (n8n and OpenWebUI).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>On older PCs, the 4B model is a &#8216;fallback&#8217; for CPUs, but on modern Ryzen AI or Apple M-series chips, it runs at nearly instant speeds.&#8221;  For interactive use like a chatbot, you really want a GPU. The CPU option is more of a &#8220;it technically works&#8221; fallback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.6; color: #333;\">\n    <p>\n        <strong>Disclaimer:<\/strong> \n        <em>I personally love to share my learnings, thoughts, and ideas; I get great satisfaction knowing someone has read and benefited from an article. This content is created entirely on my own time and in a personal capacity. The views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the positions or opinions of my employer.<\/em>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n        In my professional role, I serve as a Workforce Transformation Solutions Principal for \n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dell.com\/en-us\/work\/learn\/by-service-type-deployment\" style=\"color: #007db8; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;\">Dell Technology Services<\/a>. \n        I am passionate about guiding organizations through complex technology transitions and \n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.delltechnologies.com\/en-us\/what-we-do\/workforce-transformation.htm\" style=\"color: #007db8; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;\">Workforce Transformation<\/a>. \n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.delltechnologies.com\/en-us\/index.htm\" style=\"color: #007db8; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;\">Learn more at Dell Technologies<\/a>.\n    <\/p>\n    <hr style=\"border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #ddd; margin: 12px 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just posted yesterday Local AI Sovereignty: Deploying Ollama, Gemma 4, OpenWebUI, and n8n and I used Gemma 4 locally on Ollama. Someone asked me a good question: What size computer (Windows PC) do I need tor it? What size computer do you need for Gemma 4? Google\u2019s April 2026 release of Gemma 4 changed&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1031,441,446],"tags":[930,919,871,986,326],"class_list":["post-520215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-learnings-series","category-tech-talk","category-tips-tools-resources","tag-ai-series","tag-docker","tag-genai","tag-local-ai","tag-windows"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1031,"label":"AI Learnings Series"},{"value":441,"label":"Tech Talk"},{"value":446,"label":"Tips, Tools &amp; Resources"}],"post_tag":[{"value":930,"label":"AI Series"},{"value":919,"label":"Docker"},{"value":871,"label":"GenAi"},{"value":986,"label":"Local AI"},{"value":326,"label":"Windows"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/FeaturedImage-Gema4Locally-1024x512.jpg",1024,512,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Jorge Pereira","author_link":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/author\/jorge\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1031,"name":"AI Learnings Series","slug":"ai-learnings-series","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1041,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":9,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1031,"category_count":9,"category_description":"","cat_name":"AI Learnings Series","category_nicename":"ai-learnings-series","category_parent":0},{"term_id":441,"name":"Tech Talk","slug":"tech-talk","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":451,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":678,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":441,"category_count":678,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Tech Talk","category_nicename":"tech-talk","category_parent":0},{"term_id":446,"name":"Tips, Tools &amp; Resources","slug":"tips-tools-resources","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":456,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":83,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":446,"category_count":83,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Tips, Tools &amp; Resources","category_nicename":"tips-tools-resources","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":930,"name":"AI Series","slug":"ai-series","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":940,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":152,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":919,"name":"Docker","slug":"docker","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":929,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":12,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":871,"name":"GenAi","slug":"genai","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":881,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":83,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":986,"name":"Local AI","slug":"local-ai","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":996,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":29,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":326,"name":"Windows","slug":"windows","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":336,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":93,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520215"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":520223,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520215\/revisions\/520223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jorgep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}