Can Yi Coder 9B Chat run on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB?

YES — Runs Great

C46Usable

Estimated from fit model

Yi Coder 9B Chat needs ~21.3 GB VRAM. Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB has 92.2 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~80 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: HighStack: StandardBottleneck: Balanced

Operating mode

Choose the run profile you care about

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.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 21.3 GB, 80.1 tok/s, Runs well

21.3 GB required92.2 GB available

23% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

80.1 tok/s

TTFT

2416 ms

Safe context

1.1M

Memory

21.3 GB / 92.2 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB

KV Cache1.1 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom13.8 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsYi Coder 9B Chat on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Write a Python function to sort a list
Here's a Python function that sorts a list using quicksort:

def quicksort(arr):
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

# Example usage
numbers = [3, 6, 8, 10, 1, 2, 1]
print(quicksort(numbers))  # [1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10]

The algorithm picks a pivot, partitions the list into smaller, equal, and larger elements, then recursively sorts each partition and concatenates the results.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>Now add type hints and a docstring
def quicksort(arr: list[int]) -> list[int]:
    """Sort a list using the quicksort algorithm.

    Args:
        arr: List of integers to sort.

    Returns:
        A new sorted list.
    """
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

Added type hints for the input and return type, plus a Google-style docstring.
Estimated: 80.1 tok/s decode · 2.4s TTFT (warm) · 200 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

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.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	C	Runs well	80.1 tok/s	1318 ms	1.1M
Coding	C	Runs well	80.1 tok/s	2416 ms	1.1M
Agentic Coding	C	Runs well	80.1 tok/s	3514 ms	1.1M
Reasoning	C	Runs well	80.1 tok/s	2855 ms	1.1M
RAG	C	Runs well	80.1 tok/s	4392 ms	1.1M

Inference speed

Yi Coder 9B Chat inference speed — tokens per second by GPU & Mac

Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for Yi Coder 9B Chat at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~126 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	126.0	Fits
RTX 4090 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	126.0	Fits
RX 7900 XTX 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	125.9	Fits
RTX 3090 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	119.3	Fits
RTX 4080 Super 16GB	16 GB	Q4_K_M	111.3	Fits
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB	256 GB	Q4_K_M	101.4	Fits
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	84.5	Fits
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	80.1	Fits
RTX 4070 12GB	12 GB	Q4_K_M	68.9	Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	68.3	Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	68.3	Fits
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	43.7	Fits
RTX 3060 12GB	12 GB	Q4_K_M	43.3	Fits
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	40.1	Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB	48 GB	Q4_K_M	35.2	Fits
RTX 4060 8GB	8 GB	Q4_K_M	23.4	Offloads

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.

Quantization options

How Yi Coder 9B Chat (9B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB (92.2 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.5 GB	Low	D39
Q3_K_S	3	4.4 GB	Low	D39
NVFP4	4	5.0 GB	Medium	D39
Q4_K_M	4	5.5 GB	Medium	D39
Q5_K_M	5	6.5 GB	High	D39
Q6_K	6	7.4 GB	High	D39
Q8_0	8	9.6 GB	Very High	D40
F16Best for your GPU	16	18.5 GB	Maximum	C41

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Yi Coder 9B Chat on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-maziyarpanahi--yi-coder-9b-chat-gguf && lms server start

Frequently asked questions

Can Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB run Yi Coder 9B Chat?

Yes, Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB can run Yi Coder 9B Chat with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 80.1 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Yi Coder 9B Chat need?

Yi Coder 9B Chat (9B parameters) requires approximately 21.3 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Yi Coder 9B Chat?

The recommended quantization for Yi Coder 9B Chat is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Yi Coder 9B Chat run at on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB?

On Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB, Yi Coder 9B Chat achieves approximately 80.1 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 2416ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB run Yi Coder 9B Chat for coding?

For coding workloads, Yi Coder 9B Chat on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB receives a C grade with 80.1 tok/s and 1.1M context.

What context window can Yi Coder 9B Chat use on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB?

On Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB, Yi Coder 9B Chat can safely use up to 1.1M tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

Is unified memory on Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB as fast as VRAM for Yi Coder 9B Chat?

Not always. Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB 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.

See all results for Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB See all hardware for Yi Coder 9B Chat

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