Falcon3 7B on Apple M2 · 16GB

✅ Runs (tight) — Falcon3 7B @ Q6_K
Falcon3 7B 7B at Q6_K needs ~7.1 GB (weights 5.7 GB + KV 896 MB + overhead 512 MB @ 8K ctx) of your 8.2 GB usable (of 16.0 GB unified memory) — fits, but little headroom — close other apps or trim context. Expect ~8–14 tok/s (usable).
context @ Q6_K: comfortable to 2K · runs to its full 32K
quantneedsspeed
~ Q8_08.8 GB~0.8–1 tok/s (slow)
✓ Q6_K7.1 GB~8–14 tok/s (usable)
✓ Q5_K_M6.3 GB~10–17 tok/s (usable)
✓ Q4_K_M5.6 GB~11–19 tok/s (usable)
$runlocal install falcon3:7b
runlocal verdict card
download card share on x share on reddit drop it in your model-drop post
Falcon3 7B: Runs (tight)
for your own README — links back here

Same model, other machines: Apple M1 · Apple M1 Pro · Apple M3 Pro · Apple M2 Pro · Apple M4 Pro · Apple M3 Max

Also runs on a Apple M2: DeepSeek-R1 (distill) · Qwen3 · Llama 3.1 · Qwen2.5 · Gemma 3

Best models for a Apple M2 · 16GB →

Architecturally similar

These share Falcon3 7B's KV-cache geometry — they size memory the same way, so here's how they fit on a Apple M2 · 16GB too:

modelsharesverdict here
Gemma 2 4kv/256hd ✅ Runs comfortably

Check any combo yourself: open the checker →