Falcon 40B Instruct on Intel Xeon W-2100 series NAS (256 GB)

Can the Intel Xeon W-2100 series NAS (256 GB) run Falcon 40B Instruct?

Barely: it runs very slowly

Very slow. At Q4_K_M it needs about 44.8 GB of 230 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 1.6 tok/s.

Best quant: Q4_K_M
Generation speed: 1.6 tok/s
Prompt processing: 8.6 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 118.9 s
Largest safe context: 2K

Best app to run it on the Intel Xeon W-2100 series NAS (256 GB)

On Linux

Ollama

Command line + local API · runs on llama.cpp (ggml), MLX (Apple silicon, preview)

One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.
Serves an OpenAI-compatible API that other apps and coding tools can use.

ollama run falcon:40b

llama.cpp Usually the first to support new model architectures.
KoboldCpp

How we choose: the files published for this model, which apps run in a container on a NAS without a graphics card (models run on its processor), and whether the model fits fully in the memory models can use. Details.

Download Falcon 40B Instruct

Recommended for the Intel Xeon W-2100 series NAS (256 GB): Q4_K_M. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

Quickest · Ollama

One command downloads a ready-to-run version and starts a chat.

Get Ollama at ollama.com/download (opens in a new tab) · model page (opens in a new tab)

ollama run falcon:40b

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

Download the Q4_K_M file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/mradermacher/falcon-40b-instruct-i1-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/mradermacher/falcon-40b-instruct-i1-GGUF:Q4_K_M

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from TII, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/tiiuae/falcon-40b-instruct (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 1 day ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 15Basic quality (D) · 15 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 39/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q4_K_M, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Very slow: How well it runs on the Intel Xeon W-2100 series NAS (256 GB): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	6.8 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of the NAS’s memory that models can use (the rest stays with the NAS system and its storage services); fewer when it goes past that limit.	25.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.	3.0 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	4.5 / 15
Match score	39.3 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the Intel Xeon W-2100 series NAS (256 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	36.0 GB	230 GB	2.6 tok/s	Very slow	11Basic quality (D) · 11 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 37/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	39.8 GB	230 GB	2.0 tok/s	Very slow	13Basic quality (D) · 13 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 38/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	44.8 GB	230 GB	1.6 tok/s	Very slow	15Basic quality (D) · 15 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 39/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	49.0 GB	230 GB	1.3 tok/s	Very slow	15Basic quality (D) · 15 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 39/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	53.6 GB	230 GB	1.1 tok/s	Very slow	15Basic quality (D) · 15 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 39/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	63.6 GB	230 GB	0.8 tok/s	Very slow	16Basic quality (D) · 16 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 40/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF files (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	103 GB	230 GB	0.4 tok/s	Very slow	16Basic quality (D) · 16 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 43/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 2K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

13Basic quality (D) · 13 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Q3_K_M · 68.0 tok/s · Runs great
11Basic quality (D) · 11 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 60/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Q2_K · 45.1 tok/s · Runs great
11Basic quality (D) · 11 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 60/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Q2_K · 48.6 tok/s · Runs great
11Basic quality (D) · 11 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 60/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Q2_K · 39.9 tok/s · Runs great
15Basic quality (D) · 15 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 55/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Q5_K_M · 43.5 tok/s · Runs great
11Basic quality (D) · 11 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 51/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Max (64 GB) Q2_K · 22.7 tok/s · Runs well

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.