Will It Run AI

Can Yi Coder 9B run on MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB?

YES — Tight Fit

B62Good
Estimated from fit model

Yi Coder 9B needs ~9.6 GB VRAM. MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB has 11.5 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~26 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: TightBandwidth: Very lowStack: StandardBottleneck: Memory bandwidth
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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) 9.6 GB, 25.8 tok/s, Tight fit
9.6 GB required11.5 GB available
83% VRAM used

Fit status

Tight fit

Decode

25.8 tok/s

TTFT

7518 ms

Safe context

37K

Memory

9.6 GB / 11.5 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB
KV Cache1.5 GB
Runtime0.9 GB
Headroom1.7 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsYi Coder 9B on MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB
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: 25.8 tok/s decode · 7.5s TTFT (warm) · 64 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

WorkloadGradeFitDecodeTTFTContext
ChatBRuns well25.8 tok/s4101 ms37K
CodingBTight fit25.8 tok/s7518 ms37K
Agentic CodingBRuns with offload25.8 tok/s10935 ms37K
ReasoningBTight fit25.8 tok/s8885 ms37K
RAGBRuns with offload25.8 tok/s13669 ms37K

Quantization options

How Yi Coder 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB (11.5 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
3.5 GB
LowB63
Q3_K_S
3
4.4 GB
LowB64
NVFP4
4
5.0 GB
MediumB65
Q4_K_M
4
5.5 GB
MediumB65
Q5_K_M
5
6.5 GB
HighB64
Q6_KBest for your GPU
6
7.4 GB
HighB64
Q8_0
8
9.6 GB
Very HighF0
F16
16
18.5 GB
MaximumF0

Get started

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

Run

lms load Yi-Coder-9B-Chat && lms server start

Opciones de mejora

Hardware que ejecuta bien Yi Coder 9B

Frequently asked questions

Can MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB run Yi Coder 9B?

Yes, MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB can run Yi Coder 9B with a B grade (Tight fit). Expected decode speed: 25.8 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Yi Coder 9B need?

Yi Coder 9B (9B parameters) requires approximately 9.6 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Yi Coder 9B?

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

What speed will Yi Coder 9B run at on MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB?

On MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB, Yi Coder 9B achieves approximately 25.8 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 7518ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB run Yi Coder 9B for coding?

For coding workloads, Yi Coder 9B on MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB receives a B grade with 25.8 tok/s and 37K context.

What context window can Yi Coder 9B use on MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB?

On MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB, Yi Coder 9B can safely use up to 37K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 131K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

Is unified memory on MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GB as fast as VRAM for Yi Coder 9B?

Not always. MacBook Pro M1 Pro 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.

See all results for MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16GBSee all hardware for Yi Coder 9B
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