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TII UAEFalconFalconMambaForCausalLM

Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility

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Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base is a 7.3B-parameter open language model from TII UAE in the Falcon family. At BF16 it needs about 16.00 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.

7.3B params · denseOther413 downloads24 likes
A

Runs well on a 24 GB GPU

Runs from16 GB BF16 · 2KBest on24 GB BF16 · ~41 tok/s · 32KMacs from24 GB BF16 · ~13 tok/s

Other

Reference GPU · RTX 4090 24 GB

Estimates, ±20% · how we estimate

Run Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base

One recommended way. Every other method, OS and quant is in the step-by-step guide.

Recommended

vLLM
one command · needs vLLM installed
$vllm serve tiiuae/Falcon3-Mamba-7B-Base --max-model-len 16384

vLLM repo with its own quantisation

Download: Weights on Hugging Face

install, OS, other quants

Other ways

each opens step-by-step

Run in cloud

Fits on RTX 3090 (24 GB) (5 GB headroom) · BF16

Generation speed
~38 tok/s
generation speed
Cost per 1M output tokens
$1.58
per 1M output tokens

How Much VRAM Does Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base Need?

Select a quantization level; the listed hardware adheres to it.

QuantizationVRAM+32KOn RTX 4090 (reference)
16 GB21.4 GB16-bit · bfloat — Brain floating point 16 — preferred for trainingFits: 32K context · ~41 tok/s
est.calculated, no published file yet

Selected BF16

Brain floating point 16

18.5GBat 16K context

Weights
15.3 GB
KV cache
2.9 GB
Overhead
0.3 GB

Fits RTX 4090 (reference) · 5.5 GB free · ~41 tok/s

≥50 tok/s needs ≥1.23 TB/s · RTX 5090 ~73

Which Hardware Can Run Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base?

BF16 · 16 GB

Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base (BF16) requires 16 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 21+ GB is recommended. 26 GPUs can run it, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080. 122 devices with unified memory can run Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base, including Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256GB), Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 512GB), Mac Mini M5 Pro (24 GB).

By VRAM tier · typical GPUs and Macs at BF16
8–12 GB · RTX 4060, RTX 3060 12GBDoesn't fit — smallest quant needs 18.5 GB8 GB tier →12 GB tier →
16 GB · RTX 5060 Ti 16GBBF16 · 18.5 GB · ~18 tok/s · 2Ktight16 GB tier →
24 GB · RTX 4090referenceBF16 · 18.5 GB · ~41 tok/s · 32K24 GB tier →
Mac 32 GB · Mac Mini M4BF16 · 18.5 GB · ~5 tok/s · 32KMacs →
Mac 64 GB · Mac Studio M4 MaxBF16 · 18.5 GB · ~24 tok/s · 32KMacs →

Alternatives to Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base

Falcon family · 13 models →

Similar models

6
ModelScoreVRAMtok/sWhy it is similar
Qwen2.5 7B InstructAlibaba65.15.8 GB~131same size
Olmo 3 7B InstructAllen AI—8.4 GB~114same size
Phi Mini MoE InstructMicrosoft—5.4 GB~239same size
Gemma 3n E4B ITGoogle—7.7 GB~127same size
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7BDeepSeek—5.8 GB~131same size
Eurus 2 7B PRIMEPRIME-RL—5.1 GB~131same size

Specifications

Publisher
TII UAE
Family
Falcon
Parameters
7.3B
Architecture
FalconMambaForCausalLM
Vocabulary Size
65,024
Release Date
2024-12-11
License
Other

Frequently Asked Questions

How much VRAM does Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base need?

Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base requires 16 GB of VRAM at BF16.

VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead

Weights = 7.3B × 16 bits ÷ 8 = 14.5 GB

KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 1.5 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)

Fit ratings and hardware model lists check this model with room for a 16K-token context, which needs a little more memory.

VRAM usage by quantization

16.0 GB

Learn more about VRAM estimation →

Can I run Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base on a Mac?

Yes — Mac Mini M5 Pro (24 GB) and 106 other Macs can run Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base. Apple Silicon uses unified memory, so the model shares RAM with the system. At BF16 you need at least 16 GB of usable unified memory (RAM minus macOS overhead).

Can I run Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base locally?

Yes — Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base can run locally on consumer hardware. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.

How fast is Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base?

At BF16, Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base can reach ~300 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI350X. On NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: ~41 tok/s. Speed depends mainly on GPU memory bandwidth. Real-world results typically within ±20%.

tok/s = (bandwidth GB/s ÷ model GB) × efficiency

Example: NVIDIA B200 → 8000 ÷ 16.0 × 0.65 = ~325 tok/s

Estimated speed at BF16 (16 GB)

~325 tok/s
~41 tok/s
~325 tok/s
~300 tok/s

Real-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.

Learn more about tok/s estimation →

What's the download size of Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base?

At BF16, the download is about 14.55 GB.

Which GPUs can run Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base?

26 consumer GPUs can run Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base at BF16. Top options include AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, AMD Radeon RX 6800. 7 GPUs have plenty of headroom for comfortable inference.

Which devices can run Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base?

122 devices with unified memory can run Falcon3 Mamba 7B Base at BF16 (16 GB), including AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Strix Point) Laptop, ASUS Ascent GX10, Beelink GTR9 Pro (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128 GB), Framework Desktop (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128 GB). Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.