text model · Yi · macOS
Yi Can I run Yi 1.5 34B on Apple M5 (16GB)?
No. Yi 1.5 34B needs ~21.4 GB even at Q4_K_M, but Apple M5 (16GB) only has ~10.5 GB usable.
Needs ~21.4 GB even at Q4_K_M, but only ~10.5 GB is usable.
- Q4_K_M needed
- ~21.4 GB
- Usable on device
- ~10.5 GB
- Device memory
- 16 GB
How to run it
On macOS use LM Studio (Polished GUI, ships MLX on Apple Silicon, one-click model downloads.). vLLM is NOT a Mac tool, it is a CUDA/Linux serving engine. Unified memory is not a fixed VRAM slice; ~70% is usable for weights.
- Parameters
- 34B
- Q4_K_M size
- 19.24 GB
- Q8_0 size
- 34.03 GB
- Context
- 32k
- Memory
- 16 GB unified
- Usable for weights
- ~10.5 GB
- Best runtime
- MLX direct / Ollama (MLX backend)
What you can run instead
Run Yi 1.5 34B on other hardware
FAQ
Can Apple M5 (16GB) run Yi 1.5 34B?
No. Yi 1.5 34B needs ~21.4 GB even at Q4_K_M, but Apple M5 (16GB) only has ~10.5 GB usable.
How much memory does Yi 1.5 34B need?
Apple M5 (16GB) does not have enough memory. At Q4_K_M the weights are ~19.24 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~21.4 GB at a 4k context.
What is the best tool to run Yi 1.5 34B on macOS?
LM Studio for a simple setup; mlx-lm for the most speed. vLLM is NOT a Mac tool, it is a CUDA/Linux serving engine. Unified memory is not a fixed VRAM slice; ~70% is usable for weights.
Sources
Memory figures are estimates. See methodology.