Falcon 40B — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
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Falcon 40B is a 41.8B-parameter open language model from TII UAE in the Falcon family. At Q4_K_M it needs about 27.61 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.
32.6K downloads
2.4K likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- TII UAE
- Family
- Falcon
- Parameters
- 41.8B
- Architecture
- FalconForCausalLM
- Vocabulary Size
- 65,024
- License
- Apache 2.0
Get Started
HuggingFace
How Much VRAM Does Falcon 40B Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_K | 3.40 | 19.6 GB | — | 17.78 GB | 2-bit quantization with K-quant improvements |
| Q3_K_S | 3.50 | 20.1 GB | — | 18.30 GB | 3-bit small quantization |
| Q3_K_M | 3.90 | 22.4 GB | — | 20.40 GB | 3-bit medium quantization |
| Q4_K_M | 4.80 | 27.6 GB | — | 25.10 GB | 4-bit medium quantization — most popular sweet spot |
| Q5_K_M | 5.70 | 32.8 GB | — | 29.81 GB | 5-bit medium quantization — good quality/size tradeoff |
| Q6_K | 6.60 | 38.0 GB | — | 34.51 GB | 6-bit quantization, very good quality |
| Q8_0 | 8.00 | 46.0 GB | — | 41.84 GB | 8-bit quantization, near-lossless |
Which GPUs Can Run Falcon 40B?
Q4_K_M · 27.6 GBFalcon 40B (Q4_K_M) requires 27.6 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 36+ GB is recommended. 1 GPU can run it, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090.
All compatible consumer-level GPUs are running near their VRAM limit. You may also want to consider professional GPUs (e.g., NVIDIA A100, H100) which offer significantly more VRAM. For more headroom and better throughput, consider a multi-GPU configuration with tensor parallelism (supported by tools like vLLM, llama.cpp, or text-generation-inference).
Decent
— Enough VRAM, may be tightWhich Devices Can Run Falcon 40B?
Q4_K_M · 27.6 GB15 devices with unified memory can run Falcon 40B, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB, Mac Studio M4 Max (36 GB).
Runs great
— Plenty of headroomDecent
— Enough memory, may be tightBenchmarks
View all 4 →Related Models
Derivatives (1)
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does Falcon 40B need?
Falcon 40B requires 27.6 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M, or 46.0 GB at Q8_0.
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 41.8B × 4.8 bits ÷ 8 = 25.1 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 2.5 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
VRAM usage by quantization
Q4_K_M27.6 GB- Can NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 run Falcon 40B?
Yes, at Q3_K_L (23.6 GB) or lower. Higher quantizations like IQ4_XS (24.7 GB) exceed the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090's 24 GB.
- What's the best quantization for Falcon 40B?
For Falcon 40B, Q4_K_M (27.6 GB) offers the best balance of quality and VRAM usage. Q5_K_S (31.6 GB) provides better quality if you have the VRAM. The smallest option is Q2_K at 19.6 GB.
VRAM requirement by quantization
Q2_K19.6 GBQ3_K_L23.6 GBQ4_K_S25.9 GBQ4_K_M ★27.6 GBQ5_K_M32.8 GBQ8_046.0 GB★ Recommended — best balance of quality and VRAM usage.
- Can I run Falcon 40B on a Mac?
Falcon 40B requires at least 19.6 GB at Q2_K, which exceeds the unified memory of most consumer Macs. You would need a Mac Studio or Mac Pro with a high-memory configuration.
- Can I run Falcon 40B locally?
Yes — Falcon 40B can run locally on consumer hardware. At Q4_K_M quantization it needs 27.6 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is Falcon 40B?
At Q4_K_M, Falcon 40B can reach ~106 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI300X. Speed depends mainly on GPU memory bandwidth. Real-world results typically within ±20%.
tok/s = (bandwidth GB/s ÷ model GB) × efficiency
Example: AMD Instinct MI300X → 5300 ÷ 27.6 × 0.55 = ~106 tok/s
Estimated speed at Q4_K_M (27.6 GB)
~106 tok/s~79 tok/s~65 tok/sReal-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
- What's the download size of Falcon 40B?
At Q4_K_M, the download is about 25.10 GB. The full-precision Q8_0 version is 41.84 GB. The smallest option (Q2_K) is 17.78 GB.
- Which GPUs can run Falcon 40B?
1 consumer GPU can run Falcon 40B at Q4_K_M (27.6 GB). Top options include NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090.
- Which devices can run Falcon 40B?
15 devices with unified memory can run Falcon 40B at Q4_K_M (27.6 GB), including Mac Mini M4 (32 GB), Mac Mini M4 Pro (48 GB), Mac Pro M2 Ultra (192 GB), Mac Studio M2 Ultra (192 GB). Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.