Intel Arc B580 12GBBudget pick456 GB/s (+336)
B
Raises estimated decode speed by about 175%.56.3 tok/s decode
Raises estimated decode speed by about 175%.
~$249 MSRP
Falcon 7B Instruct needs ~7.0 GB VRAM. MacBook Pro M4 16GB has 11.5 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~20 tok/s.
Operating mode
Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.
Current mode
Balanced
Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.
Select quantization to explore
Fit status
Runs well
Decode
20.5 tok/s
TTFT
9467 ms
Safe context
8K
Memory
7.0 GB / 11.5 GB
This setup is broadly balanced for this model.
Shared-memory contention still exists
The OS, browser, and inference runtime all compete for the same physical memory pool, so real-world headroom is less forgiving than raw capacity suggests.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | B | Runs well | 20.5 tok/s | 5164 ms | 8K |
| Coding | B | Runs well | 20.2 tok/s | 9568 ms | 8K |
| Agentic Coding | B | Runs well | 20.5 tok/s | 13770 ms | 8K |
| Reasoning | B | Runs well | 20.5 tok/s | 11188 ms | 8K |
| RAG | B | Runs well | 20.5 tok/s | 17212 ms | 8K |
How Falcon 7B Instruct (7B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Pro M4 16GB (11.5 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 2.7 GB | Low | B65 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 3.4 GB | Low | B66 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run Falcon 7B Instruct on your machine.
Run
lms load falcon-7b-instruct && lms server startUpgrade options
Intel Arc B580 12GBBudget pickRaises estimated decode speed by about 175%.
~$249 MSRP
RTX 3060 12GBBest valueRaises estimated decode speed by about 150%.
~$329 MSRP
Yes, MacBook Pro M4 16GB can run Falcon 7B Instruct with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 20.2 tok/s.
Falcon 7B Instruct (7B parameters) requires approximately 7.0 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Falcon 7B Instruct is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Pro M4 16GB, Falcon 7B Instruct achieves approximately 20.2 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 9568ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Falcon 7B Instruct on MacBook Pro M4 16GB receives a B grade with 20.2 tok/s and 8K context.
On MacBook Pro M4 16GB, Falcon 7B Instruct can safely use up to 8K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 8K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/falcon-7b-instruct-on-m4-16gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
3.9 GB |
| Medium |
| B67 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 4.3 GB | Medium | B68 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 5.0 GB | High | B69 |
Q6_K | 6 | 5.7 GB | High | B69 |
Q8_0Best for your GPU | 8 | 7.5 GB | Very High | B68 |
F16 | 16 | 14.3 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Not always. MacBook Pro M4 16GB can often fit larger models thanks to unified memory, but a discrete GPU with dedicated high-bandwidth VRAM may still decode faster once the model fits. For this combination, the important distinction is capacity versus sustained throughput.