StarCoder 15B needs ~31.8 GB VRAM. MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB has 34.6 GB. With Q5_K_M quantization, expect ~30 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
Tight fit
Decode
30.0 tok/s
TTFT
6449 ms
Safe context
8K
Memory
31.8 GB / 34.6 GB
This setup is broadly balanced for this model.
Shared-memory contention still exists
The OS, browser, and inference runtime all compete for the same physical memory pool, so real-world headroom is less forgiving than raw capacity suggests.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | A | Runs well | 30.0 tok/s | 3518 ms | 8K |
| Coding | A | Tight fit | 30.0 tok/s | 6449 ms | 8K |
| Agentic Coding | F | Too heavy | 19.9 tok/s | 14143 ms | 8K |
| Reasoning | A | Tight fit | 30.0 tok/s | 7622 ms | 8K |
| RAG | F | Too heavy | 19.9 tok/s | 17678 ms | 8K |
How StarCoder 15B (15B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB (34.6 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 5.9 GB | Low | B69 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 7.4 GB | Low | B69 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 8.4 GB | Medium | B70 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 9.2 GB | Medium | B70 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 10.8 GB | High | A71 |
Q6_K | 6 | 12.3 GB | High | A71 |
Q8_0Best for your GPU | 8 | 16.1 GB | Very High | A73 |
F16 | 16 | 30.7 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Copy-paste commands to run StarCoder 15B on your machine.
Run
lms load starcoder && lms server startYour hardware
| Model | Params | Grade | Decode | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Qwen3-Coder 30B A3B Instruct | 30.5B | S | 52 tok/s | |
| Qwen 3.5 27B | 27B | S | 36.1 tok/s | |
| Qwen 3.6 27B | 27B | S | 36.2 tok/s | |
| Qwen 3.6 35B A3B | 35B | S | 43.7 tok/s | |
| Qwen3-VL 30B A3B Instruct | 30B | S | 53.8 tok/s |
Yes, MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB can run StarCoder 15B with a A grade (Tight fit). Expected decode speed: 30.0 tok/s.
StarCoder 15B (15B parameters) requires approximately 31.8 GB of memory with Q5_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for StarCoder 15B is Q5_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB, StarCoder 15B achieves approximately 30.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 6449ms using Q5_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, StarCoder 15B on MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB receives a A grade with 30.0 tok/s and 8K context.
On MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB, StarCoder 15B can safely use up to 8K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 8K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Not always. MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 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.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/starcoder-15b-on-m4-max-48gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview: