What's new versus Gemma 3 12B?

The training recipe. Hardware behavior is nearly identical in our runs (156 vs 161 tok/s peak, ~9GB floors). Choose by output quality on your tasks; the deployment math is a wash.

What GPU does Gemma 4 12B need?

A 12GB card with room to spare (~9GB measured peak at Q4_K_M). The $179 Arc B580 hosts it; anything bigger is comfort.

Why highlight the H200 number?

151 tok/s at 99.6W, 1.52 tok/W, is the most efficient 12B-class result in our database. For sustained serving, that's a materially smaller power bill than every rival at this size.

How does it stack against the 14B competition?

Within striking distance on speed (156 vs 165-177 tok/s peaks) with a lighter floor. Like the rest of the Gemma line it doesn't lead a category. Its case is balance, multilingual polish and that efficiency figure.

Should Gemma 3 12B owners switch?

If your prompts show quality gains, yes, the hardware cost of switching is zero (same floor, same speed class). Test both; keep the one your outputs prefer.

Gemma 4 12B · 10 GPUs measured first-party · llama.cpp Q4_K_M · Updated July 2026

What GPU Do You Need for Gemma 4 12B?

Gemma 4 12B is the newest Gemma generation in our database, Google's refreshed recipe at the practical mid size. Measured on 10 GPUs (llama.cpp, Q4_K_M): 156 tok/s on the B300, ~9GB peak VRAM, and one standout row: 151 tok/s on the H200 at under 100W.

Benchmarked weights: bartowski/google_gemma-4-12b-it-GGUF

155.96tok/s

Fastest: NVIDIA B300

measured, 3-run llama-bench

~9GB

VRAM needed (measured peak)

GPU-independent, applies to every card

GPUs measured

same pinned harness

1.52tok/W

Most efficient: NVIDIA H200

real power sampling, not TDP

What GPU Do You Need for Gemma 4 12B?, tok/s, fastest 10

NVIDIA B300

155.96 tok/s

NVIDIA H200

151.05 tok/s

NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3

148.17 tok/s

NVIDIA B200

146.36 tok/s

NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition

137.73 tok/s

NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4

92.43 tok/s

NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4

90.28 tok/s

NVIDIA L40S

80.44 tok/s

NVIDIA A10G

55.98 tok/s

NVIDIA L4

31.3 tok/s

Measured on our own bench. A card absent from this chart has not been run on this model yet, or cannot fit it.

Gemma 4 12B. Measured generation speed by GPU

NVIDIA B300155.96

NVIDIA H200151.05

NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3148.17

NVIDIA B200146.36

NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition137.73

NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM492.43

NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM490.28

NVIDIA L40S80.44

NVIDIA A10G55.98

NVIDIA L431.3

GPU	tok/s	Prompt t/s	tok/W	Avg power
NVIDIA B300	155.96	3492.7	0.5	313.9 W
NVIDIA H200	151.05	5481.5	1.52	99.6 W
NVIDIA H100 80GB HBM3	148.17	5585	0.61	243.6 W
NVIDIA B200	146.36	5725.9	0.44	335.6 W
NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition	137.73	7748.9	0.69	200.6 W
NVIDIA A100 80GB SXM4	92.43	2840.9	0.55	166.6 W
NVIDIA A100 40GB SXM4	90.28	2810.8	0.65	138.6 W
NVIDIA L40S	80.44	5909.4	0.5	160.1 W
NVIDIA A10G	55.98	2427.9	0.46	122.6 W
NVIDIA L4	31.3	1735.4	0.62	50.4 W

New generation, familiar profile. Our Gemma family verdict, capable everywhere, specialized nowhere, carries into generation 4 on the evidence so far. Speed and floor land almost exactly on Gemma 3 12B (156 vs 161 tok/s, both ~9GB), so the upgrade case is the newer training, not the hardware math. Same slot, same rivals: it's the do-everything option for a 12GB card, competing against Qwen3 14B's ecosystem, Phi-4 14B's speed, and DeepSeek 14B's reasoning without out-benchmarking any of them.

The efficiency headline. One number in this run deserves its own sentence: the H200 delivered 151 tok/s at 99.6W measured, 1.52 tok/W, the best efficiency we've recorded for any 12B-class model. If you're serving a mid-size model sustained and paying for power, that row is the reason to shortlist this model. At the affordable end, the A10G's 56 tok/s and L4's 31 tok/s keep it interactive on modest silicon.

Our verdict

Gemma 4 12B: 156 tok/s peak, ~9GB floor, and the best 12B-class efficiency we've measured (1.52 tok/W on the H200). The newest Gemma keeps the family character, a polished generalist at the mid size, with a power bill argument the rest of its class can't match.

FAQ

What's new versus Gemma 3 12B?: The training recipe. Hardware behavior is nearly identical in our runs (156 vs 161 tok/s peak, ~9GB floors). Choose by output quality on your tasks; the deployment math is a wash.
What GPU does Gemma 4 12B need?: A 12GB card with room to spare (~9GB measured peak at Q4_K_M). The $179 Arc B580 hosts it; anything bigger is comfort.
Why highlight the H200 number?: 151 tok/s at 99.6W, 1.52 tok/W, is the most efficient 12B-class result in our database. For sustained serving, that's a materially smaller power bill than every rival at this size.
How does it stack against the 14B competition?: Within striking distance on speed (156 vs 165-177 tok/s peaks) with a lighter floor. Like the rest of the Gemma line it doesn't lead a category. Its case is balance, multilingual polish and that efficiency figure.
Should Gemma 3 12B owners switch?: If your prompts show quality gains, yes, the hardware cost of switching is zero (same floor, same speed class). Test both; keep the one your outputs prefer.