MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18GBBudget pick
18 GB Unified (+2)150 GB/s (+82)
C
Raises estimated decode speed by about 169%.32.5 tok/s decode
Raises estimated decode speed by about 169%.
~$1,999 MSRP
Yi 1.5 6B needs ~7.3 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M1 16GB has 11.5 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~12 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
12.1 tok/s
TTFT
15970 ms
Safe context
4K
Memory
7.3 GB / 11.5 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 | C | Runs well | 12.1 tok/s | 8711 ms | 4K |
| Coding | C | Runs well | 12.1 tok/s | 15970 ms | 4K |
| Agentic Coding | C | Runs well | 12.1 tok/s | 23229 ms | 4K |
| Reasoning | C | Runs well | 12.1 tok/s | 18873 ms | 4K |
| RAG | C | Runs well | 12.1 tok/s | 29036 ms | 4K |
Inference speed
Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for Yi 1.5 6B at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~114 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? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 RTX 5090 32GB | 32 GB | Q4_K_M | 114.0 | Fits |
| RTX 4090 24GB | 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.0 | Fits |
| RTX 4080 Super 16GB | 16 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.0 | Fits |
| RTX 3090 24GB | 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.0 | Fits |
| RTX 4070 12GB | 12 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.0 | Fits |
RX 7900 XTX 24GB | 24 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.0 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.0 | Fits |
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB | 256 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.0 | Fits |
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.0 | Fits |
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB | 128 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.0 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 84.0 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 71.3 | Fits |
| RTX 3060 12GB | 12 GB | Q4_K_M | 70.6 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB | 64 GB | Q4_K_M | 65.4 | Fits |
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB | 48 GB | Q4_K_M | 57.5 | Fits |
| RTX 4060 8GB | 8 GB | Q4_K_M | 54.3 | Fits |
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 Yi 1.5 6B (6B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M1 16GB (11.5 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 2.3 GB | Low | C49 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 2.9 GB | Low | C49 |
NVFP4 | 4 | 3.4 GB | Medium | C50 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 3.7 GB | Medium | C50 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 4.3 GB | High | C51 |
Q6_K | 6 | 4.9 GB | High | C52 |
Q8_0Best for your GPU | 8 | 6.4 GB | Very High | C52 |
F16 | 16 | 12.3 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Copy-paste commands to run Yi 1.5 6B on your machine.
Run
lms load Yi-1.5-6B-Chat && lms server startUpgrade options
Raises estimated decode speed by about 169%.
~$1,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 375%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$1,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 469%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$1,999 MSRP
Yes, MacBook Air M1 16GB can run Yi 1.5 6B with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 12.1 tok/s.
Yi 1.5 6B (6B parameters) requires approximately 7.3 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Yi 1.5 6B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Air M1 16GB, Yi 1.5 6B achieves approximately 12.1 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 15970ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Yi 1.5 6B on MacBook Air M1 16GB receives a C grade with 12.1 tok/s and 4K context.
On MacBook Air M1 16GB, Yi 1.5 6B can safely use up to 4K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 4K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
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.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/yi-1.5-6b-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>
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