Can Yi 9B Coder i1 run on MacBook Air M2 16GB?

YES — Runs Great

C50Usable
Estimated from fit model

Yi 9B Coder i1 needs ~9.2 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M2 16GB has 11.5 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~12 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: 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) 9.2 GB, 11.8 tok/s, Runs well
9.2 GB required11.5 GB available
80% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

11.8 tok/s

TTFT

16352 ms

Safe context

52K

Memory

9.2 GB / 11.5 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB
KV Cache1.1 GB
Runtime0.9 GB
Headroom1.7 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsYi 9B Coder i1 on MacBook Air M2 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: 11.8 tok/s decode · 16.4s TTFT (warm) · 30 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
ChatCRuns well11.8 tok/s8919 ms52K
CodingCRuns well11.8 tok/s16352 ms52K
Agentic CodingCTight fit11.8 tok/s23784 ms52K
ReasoningCRuns well11.8 tok/s19325 ms52K
RAGCTight fit11.8 tok/s29730 ms52K

Quantization options

How Yi 9B Coder i1 (9B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M2 16GB (11.5 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
3.5 GB
LowC50
Q3_K_S
3
4.4 GB
LowC51
NVFP4
4
5.0 GB
MediumC52
Q4_K_M
4
5.5 GB
MediumC52
Q5_K_M
5
6.5 GB
HighC52
Q6_KBest for your GPU
6
7.4 GB
HighC52
Q8_0
8
9.6 GB
Very HighF0
F16
16
18.5 GB
MaximumF0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Yi 9B Coder i1 on your machine.

Run

lms load hf-mradermacher--yi-9b-coder-i1-gguf && lms server start

アップグレードオプション

Yi 9B Coder i1を快適に動かすハードウェア

Frequently asked questions

Can MacBook Air M2 16GB run Yi 9B Coder i1?

Yes, MacBook Air M2 16GB can run Yi 9B Coder i1 with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 11.8 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Yi 9B Coder i1 need?

Yi 9B Coder i1 (9B parameters) requires approximately 9.2 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Yi 9B Coder i1?

The recommended quantization for Yi 9B Coder i1 is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Yi 9B Coder i1 run at on MacBook Air M2 16GB?

On MacBook Air M2 16GB, Yi 9B Coder i1 achieves approximately 11.8 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 16352ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can MacBook Air M2 16GB run Yi 9B Coder i1 for coding?

For coding workloads, Yi 9B Coder i1 on MacBook Air M2 16GB receives a C grade with 11.8 tok/s and 52K context.

What context window can Yi 9B Coder i1 use on MacBook Air M2 16GB?

On MacBook Air M2 16GB, Yi 9B Coder i1 can safely use up to 52K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

Is unified memory on MacBook Air M2 16GB as fast as VRAM for Yi 9B Coder i1?

Not always. MacBook Air M2 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 Air M2 16GBSee all hardware for Yi 9B Coder i1
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