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URL: https://willitrunai.com/can-run/yi-coder-9b-on-m4-max-128gb


Can Yi Coder 9B run on MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB?

YES — Runs Great

B58Good
Estimated from fit model

Yi Coder 9B needs ~21.7 GB VRAM. MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB has 92.2 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~63 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: MediumStack: StandardBottleneck: Balanced
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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) — 21.7 GB, 74.3 tok/s, Runs well
21.7 GB required92.2 GB available
24% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

74.3 tok/s

TTFT

2607 ms

Safe context

131K

Memory

21.7 GB / 92.2 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB
KV Cache1.5 GB
Runtime0.9 GB
Headroom13.8 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsYi Coder 9B on MacBook Pro M4 Max 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: 74.3 tok/s decode · 2.6s TTFT (warm) · 186 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 well62.7 tok/s1685 ms131K
CodingBRuns well62.7 tok/s3090 ms131K
Agentic CodingBRuns well62.7 tok/s4494 ms131K
ReasoningBRuns well62.7 tok/s3652 ms131K
RAGBRuns well62.7 tok/s5618 ms131K

Quantization options

How Yi Coder 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB (92.2 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
3.5 GB
LowC51
Q3_K_S
3
4.4 GB
LowC51
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

Frequently asked questions

See all results for MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GBSee all hardware for Yi Coder 9B
5.0 GB
Medium
C51
Q4_K_M
4
5.5 GB
MediumC51
Q5_K_M
5
6.5 GB
HighC51
Q6_K
6
7.4 GB
HighC52
Q8_0
8
9.6 GB
Very HighC52
F16Best for your GPU
16
18.5 GB
MaximumC53

Not always. MacBook Pro M4 Max 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.