Can Nemotron Nano 9B v2 run on MacBook Air M4 24GB?

YES — Runs Great

A80Great

Estimated — low-sample bucket· few comparable runs

Nemotron Nano 9B v2 needs ~11.4 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M4 24GB has 17.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~17 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: Very lowStack: StandardBottleneck: Memory bandwidth

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) — 11.4 GB, 16.8 tok/s, Runs well

11.4 GB required17.3 GB available

66% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

16.8 tok/s

TTFT

11517 ms

Safe context

54K

Memory

11.4 GB / 17.3 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB

KV Cache2.4 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom2.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsNemotron Nano 9B v2 on MacBook Air M4 24GB
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: 16.8 tok/s decode · 11.5s TTFT (warm) · 42 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	A	Runs well	16.8 tok/s	6282 ms	54K
Coding	A	Runs well	16.8 tok/s	11517 ms	54K
Agentic Coding	A	Runs well	16.8 tok/s	16752 ms	54K
Reasoning	A	Runs well	16.8 tok/s	13611 ms	54K
RAG	A	Runs well	16.8 tok/s	20940 ms	54K

Quantization options

How Nemotron Nano 9B v2 (9B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M4 24GB (17.3 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	3.5 GB	Low	A76
Q3_K_S	3	4.4 GB	Low	A77
NVFP4	4	5.0 GB	Medium	A78
Q4_K_M	4	5.5 GB	Medium	A78
Q5_K_M	5	6.5 GB	High	A79
Q6_K	6	7.4 GB	High	A80
Q8_0Best for your GPU	8	9.6 GB	Very High	A81
F16	16	18.5 GB	Maximum	F0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Nemotron Nano 9B v2 on your machine.

Run

ollama run nemotron-nano:9b-v2

Your hardware

More models your MacBook Air M4 24GB can run

Model	Params	Grade	Decode
Magistral Small 2507	24B	A	7.3 tok/s
Devstral Small 2 24B Instruct	24B	A	7.3 tok/s
Qwen 3 14B	14B	S	9.6 tok/s
Phi-4-reasoning-plus 14B	14.7B	S	9.4 tok/s
Devstral Small 1.1	24B	B	7.3 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can MacBook Air M4 24GB run Nemotron Nano 9B v2?

Yes, MacBook Air M4 24GB can run Nemotron Nano 9B v2 with a A grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 16.8 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Nemotron Nano 9B v2 need?

Nemotron Nano 9B v2 (9B parameters) requires approximately 11.4 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Nemotron Nano 9B v2?

The recommended quantization for Nemotron Nano 9B v2 is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Nemotron Nano 9B v2 run at on MacBook Air M4 24GB?

On MacBook Air M4 24GB, Nemotron Nano 9B v2 achieves approximately 16.8 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 11517ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can MacBook Air M4 24GB run Nemotron Nano 9B v2 for coding?

For coding workloads, Nemotron Nano 9B v2 on MacBook Air M4 24GB receives a A grade with 16.8 tok/s and 54K context.

What context window can Nemotron Nano 9B v2 use on MacBook Air M4 24GB?

On MacBook Air M4 24GB, Nemotron Nano 9B v2 can safely use up to 54K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 131K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

Is unified memory on MacBook Air M4 24GB as fast as VRAM for Nemotron Nano 9B v2?

Not always. MacBook Air M4 24GB 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 MacBook Air M4 24GB See all hardware for Nemotron Nano 9B v2

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