diff --git a/models/demos/falcon7b/tests/ci/test_falcon_end_to_end_prefill.py b/models/demos/falcon7b/tests/ci/test_falcon_end_to_end_prefill.py
index 416854f8ca4..2d18afc669b 100644
--- a/models/demos/falcon7b/tests/ci/test_falcon_end_to_end_prefill.py
+++ b/models/demos/falcon7b/tests/ci/test_falcon_end_to_end_prefill.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
         ("prefill", 32, 1, 32, 0, "BFLOAT16-DRAM", 0.97, 0.95, 0.95),
         ("prefill", 32, 1, 128, 0, "BFLOAT16-DRAM", 0.97, 0.99, 0.96),
         ("prefill", 32, 1, 1024, 0, "BFLOAT16-DRAM", 0.98, 0.99, 0.96),
-        # ("prefill", 32, 1, 2048, 0, "BFLOAT16-DRAM", 0.99, 0.99, 0.97), # CI machines don't have enough RAM memory to run this test atm; to reduce memory usage (#8349)
+        # ("prefill", 32, 1, 2048, 0, "BFLOAT16-DRAM", 0.98, 0.99, 0.96), # CI machines don't have enough RAM memory to run this test atm; to reduce memory usage (#8349)
     ),
     ids=[
         "prefill_seq32",
diff --git a/models/demos/falcon7b/tests/test_perf_falcon.py b/models/demos/falcon7b/tests/test_perf_falcon.py
index aacf997eb7d..859d9f4c49e 100644
--- a/models/demos/falcon7b/tests/test_perf_falcon.py
+++ b/models/demos/falcon7b/tests/test_perf_falcon.py
@@ -511,7 +511,7 @@ def run_perf_wh_bare_metal(
         (
             ("prefill", 32, 1, 128, 0, "BFLOAT16-DRAM", 0.97, 0.99, 0.96, 0.1),
             ("prefill", 32, 1, 1024, 0, "BFLOAT16-DRAM", 0.98, 0.99, 0.96, 1),
-            ("prefill", 32, 1, 2048, 0, "BFLOAT16-DRAM", 0.99, 0.99, 0.97, 1),
+            ("prefill", 32, 1, 2048, 0, "BFLOAT16-DRAM", 0.98, 0.99, 0.96, 1),
             ("decode", 32, 32, 1, 128, "BFLOAT16-DRAM", 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.15),
             ("decode", 32, 32, 1, 128, "BFLOAT16-L1", 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.15),
             ("decode", 32, 32, 1, 128, "BFLOAT16-L1_SHARDED", 0.92, 0.95, 0.95, 0.1),
diff --git a/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/falcon_attention.py b/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/falcon_attention.py
index b670755ec60..9d4e47cc141 100644
--- a/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/falcon_attention.py
+++ b/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/falcon_attention.py
@@ -216,7 +216,11 @@ def forward(
 
         seq_len = hidden_states[0].get_legacy_shape()[2]
 
-        if self.model_config["PREFILL_OPTIMIZED_MODE"] and seq_len in [128, 1024, 2048]:
+        if (
+            self.model_config["PREFILL_OPTIMIZED_MODE"]
+            and self.model_config["PREFILL_ATTENTION_OPTIMIZED_MODE"]
+            and seq_len in [128, 1024, 2048]
+        ):
             attn_output, layer_present = self._optimized_forward(
                 hidden_states,
                 attention_mask,
diff --git a/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/falcon_model.py b/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/falcon_model.py
index d8e7f82c2b6..76aa979b5f6 100644
--- a/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/falcon_model.py
+++ b/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/falcon_model.py
@@ -117,7 +117,11 @@ def model_preprocessing(self, llm_mode, input_ids, kv_cache_len, num_input_token
                 dim=-1,
             )
 
-            if self.model_config["PREFILL_OPTIMIZED_MODE"] and num_input_tokens in [128, 1024, 2048]:
+            if (
+                self.model_config["PREFILL_OPTIMIZED_MODE"]
+                and self.model_config["PREFILL_ATTENTION_OPTIMIZED_MODE"]
+                and num_input_tokens in [128, 1024, 2048]
+            ):
                 attention_mask_ = create_prefill_attn_mask_for_sharded_softmax(
                     attention_mask_bool_padded * -1e5,
                     self.config.num_attention_heads,
diff --git a/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/model_config.py b/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/model_config.py
index 81a0f8120eb..08575446369 100644
--- a/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/model_config.py
+++ b/models/demos/falcon7b/tt/model_config.py
@@ -195,6 +195,7 @@ def get_model_config(model_config_str, prefill_seq_len=0):
 
 def set_prefill_config(model_config, seq_len, dram_memcfg):
     model_config["PREFILL_OPTIMIZED_MODE"] = not is_grayskull()
+    model_config["PREFILL_ATTENTION_OPTIMIZED_MODE"] = False  # enable when #8349 is fixed
     model_config["MLP_SEQ_LEN"] = seq_len
     model_config["MLP_PADDING_VALUE"] = 4608
     model_config["MLP_GRID_SIZE"] = (8, 8)