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URL: https://willitrunai.com/can-run/yi-coder-9b-on-m4-air-24gb


Can Yi Coder 9B run on MacBook Air M4 24GB?

YES — Runs Great

B61Good
Estimated — low-sample bucket· few comparable runs

Yi Coder 9B needs ~10.4 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M4 24GB has 17.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~16 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) — 10.4 GB, 15.7 tok/s, Runs well
10.4 GB required17.3 GB available
60% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

15.7 tok/s

TTFT

12296 ms

Safe context

91K

Memory

10.4 GB / 17.3 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB
KV Cache1.5 GB
Runtime0.9 GB
Headroom2.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsYi Coder 9B 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: 15.7 tok/s decode · 12.3s TTFT (warm) · 39 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 well15.7 tok/s6710 ms91K
CodingBRuns well15.7 tok/s12302 ms91K
Agentic CodingBRuns well15.7 tok/s17893 ms91K
ReasoningBRuns well15.7 tok/s14531 ms91K
RAGBRuns well15.7 tok/s22355 ms91K

Quantization options

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

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
3.5 GB
LowB59
Q3_K_S
3
4.4 GB
LowB60
NVFP4
4

Get started

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

Run

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

Upgrade options

Hardware that runs Yi Coder 9B well

MacBook Pro M2 Max 32GBBudget pick
32 GB Unified (+8)400 GB/s (+280)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 193%.46 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 193%.

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.

~$1,999 MSRP

MacBook Pro M1 Max 32GBBest value
32 GB Unified (+8)400 GB/s (+280)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 178%.43.6 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 178%.

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.

~$2,499 MSRP

MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GBApple upgrade
36 GB Unified (+12)410 GB/s (+290)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 255%.55.8 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 255%.

Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.

~$2,499 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

See all results for MacBook Air M4 24GBSee all hardware for Yi Coder 9B
5.0 GB
Medium
B60
Q4_K_M
4
5.5 GB
MediumB61
Q5_K_M
5
6.5 GB
HighB62
Q6_K
6
7.4 GB
HighB62
Q8_0Best for your GPU
8
9.6 GB
Very HighB63
F16
16
18.5 GB
MaximumF0

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.