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URL: https://willitrunai.com/can-run/yi-coder-9b-on-m4-mini-32gb


Can Yi Coder 9B run on Mac mini M4 32GB?

YES — Runs Great

B59Good
Estimated — low-sample bucket· few comparable runs

Yi Coder 9B needs ~11.3 GB VRAM. Mac mini M4 32GB has 23.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~16 tok/s.

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

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) — 11.3 GB, 15.7 tok/s, Runs well
11.3 GB required23.0 GB available
49% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

15.7 tok/s

TTFT

12296 ms

Safe context

131K

Memory

11.3 GB / 23.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights5.5 GB
KV Cache1.5 GB
Runtime0.9 GB
Headroom3.5 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsYi Coder 9B on Mac mini M4 32GB
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 ms131K
CodingBRuns well15.7 tok/s12302 ms131K
Agentic CodingBRuns well15.7 tok/s17893 ms131K
ReasoningBRuns well15.7 tok/s14538 ms131K
RAGBRuns well15.7 tok/s22367 ms131K

Quantization options

How Yi Coder 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac mini M4 32GB (23.0 GB usable).

QuantBitsVRAMQualityFit
Q2_K
2
3.5 GB
LowB57
Q3_K_S
3
4.4 GB
LowB58
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 M3 Pro 36GBBudget pick
36 GB Unified (+4)150 GB/s (+30)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 38%.21.7 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 38%.

~$1,999 MSRP

MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GBBest value
36 GB Unified (+4)410 GB/s (+290)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 255%.55.8 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 255%.

~$2,499 MSRP

Mac Studio M2 Ultra 64GBApple upgrade
64 GB Unified (+32)800 GB/s (+680)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 485%.91.9 tok/s decode

Raises estimated decode speed by about 485%.

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

~$3,999 MSRP

Frequently asked questions

See all results for Mac mini M4 32GBSee all hardware for Yi Coder 9B
5.0 GB
Medium
B58
Q4_K_M
4
5.5 GB
MediumB58
Q5_K_M
5
6.5 GB
HighB59
Q6_K
6
7.4 GB
HighB59
Q8_0
8
9.6 GB
Very HighB61
F16Best for your GPU
16
18.5 GB
MaximumB62