Baichuan 13B needs ~24.2 GB but MacBook Air M1 16GB only has 11.5 GB. Try a smaller quantization or lighter model.
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
12.7 GB over capacity — needs offload or smaller quantization
Fit status
Too heavy
Decode
2.0 tok/s
TTFT
96763 ms
Safe context
4K
Memory
24.2 GB / 11.5 GB
Offload
50%
Usable shared or unified memory is the main blocker for this model.
Not enough usable memory
The model needs 24.2 GB, but this setup only exposes 11.5 GB of usable shared or unified memory.
Move to a larger memory pool
A larger unified-memory SKU or a discrete high-bandwidth GPU is the cleanest way to make this model practical.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | F | Too heavy | 2.5 tok/s | 42778 ms | 4K |
| Coding | F | Too heavy | 2.0 tok/s | 96763 ms | 4K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 2.0 tok/s | 140746 ms | 4K |
| Reasoning | F | Too heavy | 2.0 tok/s | 114356 ms | 4K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 2.0 tok/s | 175932 ms | 4K |
How Baichuan 13B (13B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M1 16GB (11.5 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 5.1 GB | Low | B69 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 6.4 GB | Low | B68 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Upgrade options
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Raises estimated decode speed by about 245%.
~$799 MSRP
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$1,099 MSRP
Makes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Raises estimated decode speed by about 245%.
~$1,099 MSRP
RTX 5090 32GBBiggest leapMakes the model fit on the accelerator instead of staying completely out of reach.
Removes host-memory offload, which is usually the single biggest latency and throughput win.
~$1,999 MSRP
No, Baichuan 13B requires more memory than MacBook Air M1 16GB provides.
Baichuan 13B (13B parameters) requires approximately 24.2 GB of memory with Q5_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Baichuan 13B is Q5_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Air M1 16GB, Baichuan 13B achieves approximately 2.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 96763ms using Q5_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Baichuan 13B on MacBook Air M1 16GB receives a F grade with 2.0 tok/s and 4K context.
On MacBook Air M1 16GB, Baichuan 13B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 8K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/baichuan-13b-on-m1-16gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
7.3 GB |
| Medium |
| B68 |
Q4_K_MBest for your GPU | 4 | 7.9 GB | Medium | B68 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 9.4 GB | High | F0 |
Q6_K | 6 | 10.7 GB | High | F0 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 13.9 GB | Very High | F0 |
F16 | 16 | 26.7 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Move to a larger memory pool. A larger unified-memory SKU or a discrete high-bandwidth GPU is the cleanest way to make this model practical.
Not always. MacBook Air M1 16GB can often fit larger models thanks to unified memory, but a discrete GPU with dedicated high-bandwidth VRAM may still decode faster once the model fits. For this combination, the important distinction is capacity versus sustained throughput.
