Falcon 11B — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility
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Falcon 11B is a 11.1B-parameter open language model from TII UAE in the Falcon family. It supports a context window of up to 8,192 tokens. At Q4_K_M it needs about 7.33 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.
4.8K downloads
219 likesSpecifications
- Publisher
- TII UAE
- Family
- Falcon
- Parameters
- 11.1B
- Architecture
- FalconForCausalLM
- Context Length
- 8,192 tokens
- Vocabulary Size
- 65,024
- License
- unknown
Get Started
HuggingFace
How Much VRAM Does Falcon 11B Need?
Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.
| Quantization | Bits | VRAM | + Context | File Size | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_K | 3.40 | 5.2 GB | — | 4.72 GB | 2-bit quantization with K-quant improvements |
| Q3_K_S | 3.50 | 5.3 GB | — | 4.86 GB | 3-bit small quantization |
| Q3_K_M | 3.90 | 6.0 GB | — | 5.41 GB | 3-bit medium quantization |
| Q4_0 | 4.00 | 6.1 GB | — | 5.55 GB | 4-bit legacy quantization |
| Q4_K_M | 4.80 | 7.3 GB | — | 6.66 GB | 4-bit medium quantization — most popular sweet spot |
| Q5_K_M | 5.70 | 8.7 GB | — | 7.91 GB | 5-bit medium quantization — good quality/size tradeoff |
| Q6_K | 6.60 | 10.1 GB | — | 9.16 GB | 6-bit quantization, very good quality |
| Q8_0 | 8.00 | 12.2 GB | — | 11.10 GB | 8-bit quantization, near-lossless |
Which GPUs Can Run Falcon 11B?
Q4_K_M · 7.3 GBFalcon 11B (Q4_K_M) requires 7.3 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 10+ GB is recommended. 35 GPUs can run it, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080.
Runs great
— Plenty of headroom
Which Devices Can Run Falcon 11B?
Q4_K_M · 7.3 GB33 devices with unified memory can run Falcon 11B, including NVIDIA DGX H100, NVIDIA DGX A100 640GB, MacBook Air 13" M3 (8 GB).
Runs great
— Plenty of headroomDecent
— Enough memory, may be tightBenchmarks
View all 3 →Related Models
Derivatives (2)
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much VRAM does Falcon 11B need?
Falcon 11B requires 7.3 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M, or 12.2 GB at Q8_0.
VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead
Weights = 11.1B × 4.8 bits ÷ 8 = 6.7 GB
KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 0.6 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)
VRAM usage by quantization
Q4_K_M7.3 GB- What's the best quantization for Falcon 11B?
For Falcon 11B, Q4_K_M (7.3 GB) offers the best balance of quality and VRAM usage. Q5_K_S (8.4 GB) provides better quality if you have the VRAM. The smallest option is IQ3_XS at 5.0 GB.
VRAM requirement by quantization
IQ3_XS5.0 GBIQ3_M5.5 GBQ3_K_L6.3 GBQ4_K_M ★7.3 GBQ5_K_S8.4 GBQ8_012.2 GB★ Recommended — best balance of quality and VRAM usage.
- Can I run Falcon 11B on a Mac?
Falcon 11B requires at least 5.0 GB at IQ3_XS, 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 11B locally?
Yes — Falcon 11B can run locally on consumer hardware. At Q4_K_M quantization it needs 7.3 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.
- How fast is Falcon 11B?
At Q4_K_M, Falcon 11B can reach ~398 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI300X. On NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: ~89 tok/s. 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 ÷ 7.3 × 0.55 = ~398 tok/s
Estimated speed at Q4_K_M (7.3 GB)
~398 tok/s~89 tok/s~297 tok/s~246 tok/sReal-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.
- What's the download size of Falcon 11B?
At Q4_K_M, the download is about 6.66 GB. The full-precision Q8_0 version is 11.10 GB. The smallest option (IQ3_XS) is 4.58 GB.
- Which GPUs can run Falcon 11B?
35 consumer GPUs can run Falcon 11B at Q4_K_M (7.3 GB). Top options include AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, AMD Radeon RX 6800, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, AMD Radeon RX 7600. 27 GPUs have plenty of headroom for comfortable inference.
- Which devices can run Falcon 11B?
33 devices with unified memory can run Falcon 11B at Q4_K_M (7.3 GB), including Mac Mini M4 (16 GB), Mac Mini M4 (32 GB), Mac Mini M4 Pro (24 GB), Mac Mini M4 Pro (48 GB). Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.