Falcon3 7B on Apple M3 Pro · 18GB

✅ Runs (tight) — Falcon3 7B @ Q8_0
Falcon3 7B 7B at Q8_0 needs ~8.8 GB (weights 7.4 GB + KV 896 MB + overhead 512 MB @ 8K ctx) of your 9.1 GB usable (of 18.0 GB unified memory) — fits, but little headroom — close other apps or trim context. Expect ~9–16 tok/s (usable).
context @ Q8_0: runs to its full 32K
quantneedsspeed
✓ Q8_08.8 GB~9–16 tok/s (usable)
✓ Q6_K7.1 GB~12–20 tok/s (usable)
✓ Q5_K_M6.3 GB~14–25 tok/s (usable)
✓ Q4_K_M5.6 GB~16–25 tok/s (fast)
$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 M2 · Apple M2 Pro · Apple M4 Pro · Apple M3 Max

Also runs on a Apple M3 Pro: DeepSeek-R1 (distill) · Qwen2.5 · Mistral 7B · Qwen3 · Llama 3.1

Best models for a Apple M3 Pro · 18GB →

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 M3 Pro · 18GB too:

modelsharesverdict here
Gemma 3 4kv/256hd ✅ Runs (tight)
Gemma 2 4kv/256hd ✅ Runs (tight)

Check any combo yourself: open the checker →