diff --git a/backends/exllamav3/model.py b/backends/exllamav3/model.py
index b4f6fdc..06d3b29 100644
--- a/backends/exllamav3/model.py
+++ b/backends/exllamav3/model.py
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ from exllamav3 import (
     AsyncGenerator,
     AsyncJob,
     Cache,
-    ComboSampler,
     Config,
     Model,
     Tokenizer,
@@ -22,6 +21,7 @@ from exllamav3 import (
 from loguru import logger
 
 from backends.base_model_container import BaseModelContainer
+from backends.exllamav3.sampler import ExllamaV3SamplerBuilder
 from common.concurrency import iterate_in_threadpool
 from common.gen_logging import (
     log_generation_params,
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ from common.multimodal import MultimodalEmbeddingWrapper
 from common.sampling import BaseSamplerRequest
 from common.templating import PromptTemplate, find_prompt_template
 from common.transformers_utils import GenerationConfig
-from common.utils import unwrap
+from common.utils import coalesce, unwrap
 from endpoints.core.types.model import ModelCard
 
 
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
     cache: Cache
     tokenizer: Tokenizer
     config: Config
+    generator: Optional[AsyncGenerator] = None
     gpu_split: List[float] | None = None
     gpu_split_auto: bool = True
     autosplit_reserve: List[float] = [96 / 1024]
@@ -123,13 +124,47 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
 
                 # Reserve VRAM for each GPU
                 self.autosplit_reserve = [
-                    value/1024
-                    for value in autosplit_reserve_megabytes
+                    value / 1024 for value in autosplit_reserve_megabytes
                 ]
         # TODO: speculative decoding
 
         return self
 
+    def model_info(self) -> ModelCard:
+        """
+        Returns a dictionary of the current model's configuration parameters.
+
+        Returns:
+            Model parameters provided by the backend
+        """
+
+        pass
+
+    async def wait_for_jobs(self, skip_wait: bool = False):
+        """
+        Polling to wait for any active generation jobs to complete.
+
+        Args:
+            skip_wait: If True, cancel jobs immediately instead of waiting.
+        """
+
+        if not self.generator:
+            return
+
+        # Immediately abort all jobs if asked
+        if skip_wait:
+            logger.warning(
+                "Immediately terminating all jobs. "
+                "Clients will have their requests cancelled.\n"
+            )
+
+            for job in self.active_job_ids.values():
+                if job:
+                    await job.cancel()
+
+        while len(self.active_job_ids) > 0:
+            await asyncio.sleep(0.01)
+
     async def load(self, progress_callback=None, **kwargs):
         """
         Loads the model into memory.
@@ -161,8 +196,8 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
             await self.wait_for_jobs(kwargs.get("skip_wait"))
 
             generator = self.load_model_sync(progress_callback)
-            async for module, modules in iterate_in_threadpool(generator):
-                yield module, modules
+            async for value in iterate_in_threadpool(generator):
+                yield value
 
             # Clean up any extra vram usage from torch and cuda
             # (Helps reduce VRAM bottlenecking on Windows)
@@ -184,11 +219,42 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
         for value in self.model.load_gen(
             reserve_per_device=self.autosplit_reserve,
             use_per_device=self.gpu_split,
-            callback=progress_callback
+            callback=progress_callback,
         ):
             if value:
                 yield value
 
+    async def create_generator(self):
+        """Create and save a Exllama generator class."""
+
+        try:
+            # Don't acquire locks unless a model is loaded
+            if self.loaded:
+                await self.load_lock.acquire()
+
+                # Immediately cancel all jobs
+                await self.wait_for_jobs(skip_wait=True)
+
+            # Create new generator
+            self.generator = AsyncGenerator(
+                model=self.model,
+                cache=self.cache,
+                tokenizer=self.tokenizer,
+                max_batch_size=self.max_batch_size,
+            )
+
+            # Update the state of the container var
+            if self.max_batch_size is None:
+                self.max_batch_size = self.generator.generator.max_batch_size
+        finally:
+            # This means the generator is being recreated
+            # The load lock is already released in the load function
+            if self.loaded:
+                self.load_lock.release()
+
+                async with self.load_condition:
+                    self.load_condition.notify_all()
+
     async def unload(self, loras_only: bool = False, **kwargs):
         """
         Unloads the model and associated resources from memory.
@@ -198,11 +264,15 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
             **kwargs: Additional unloading options (e.g., shutdown).
         """
 
-        try:
-            await self.load_lock.acquire()
+        # Used when shutting down the server
+        do_shutdown = kwargs.get("shutdown")
 
-            # Wait for other jobs to finish
-            await self.wait_for_jobs(kwargs.get("skip_wait"))
+        try:
+            if not do_shutdown:
+                await self.load_lock.acquire()
+
+                # Wait for other jobs to finish
+                await self.wait_for_jobs(kwargs.get("skip_wait"))
 
             self.model.unload()
             self.model = None
@@ -211,15 +281,21 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
             self.cache = None
             self.tokenizer = None
 
+            # Cleanup the generator from any pending jobs
+            if self.generator is not None:
+                await self.generator.close()
+                self.generator = None
+
             gc.collect()
             torch.cuda.empty_cache()
 
             logger.info("Model unloaded.")
         finally:
-            self.load_lock.release()
+            if not do_shutdown:
+                self.load_lock.release()
 
-            async with self.load_condition:
-                self.load_condition.notify_all()
+                async with self.load_condition:
+                    self.load_condition.notify_all()
 
     def encode_tokens(self, text: str, **kwargs) -> List[int]:
         """
@@ -233,11 +309,15 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
             A list of integer token IDs.
         """
 
-        return self.tokenizer.encode(
-            text,
-            add_bos=unwrap(kwargs.get("add_bos_token"), True),
-            encode_special_tokens=unwrap(kwargs.get("encode_special_tokens"), True),
-        ).flatten().tolist()
+        return (
+            self.tokenizer.encode(
+                text,
+                add_bos=unwrap(kwargs.get("add_bos_token"), True),
+                encode_special_tokens=unwrap(kwargs.get("encode_special_tokens"), True),
+            )
+            .flatten()
+            .tolist()
+        )
 
     def decode_tokens(self, ids: List[int], **kwargs) -> str:
         """
@@ -278,26 +358,6 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
             "unk_token": self.tokenizer.unk_token,
         }
 
-    def model_info(self) -> ModelCard:
-        """
-        Returns a dictionary of the current model's configuration parameters.
-
-        Returns:
-            Model parameters provided by the backend
-        """
-
-        pass
-
-    async def wait_for_jobs(self, skip_wait: bool = False):
-        """
-        Waits for any active generation jobs to complete.
-
-        Args:
-            skip_wait: If True, cancel jobs immediately instead of waiting.
-        """
-
-        pass
-
     async def generate(
         self,
         request_id: str,
@@ -446,37 +506,6 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
 
         return finish_chunk
 
-    async def create_generator(self):
-        """Create and save a Exllama generator class."""
-
-        try:
-            # Don't acquire locks unless a model is loaded
-            if self.loaded:
-                await self.load_lock.acquire()
-
-                # Immediately cancel all jobs
-                await self.wait_for_jobs(skip_wait=True)
-
-            # Create new generator
-            self.generator = AsyncGenerator(
-                model=self.model,
-                cache=self.cache,
-                tokenizer=self.tokenizer,
-                max_batch_size=self.max_batch_size,
-            )
-
-            # Update the state of the container var
-            if self.max_batch_size is None:
-                self.max_batch_size = self.generator.generator.max_batch_size
-        finally:
-            # This means the generator is being recreated
-            # The load lock is already released in the load function
-            if self.loaded:
-                self.load_lock.release()
-
-                async with self.load_condition:
-                    self.load_condition.notify_all()
-
     async def generate_gen(
         self,
         request_id: str,
@@ -492,25 +521,58 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
         """
         chunk_tokens: torch.Tensor | tuple[torch.Tensor, torch.Tensor]
 
-        # FIXME: this is probably not right
-        base_sampler = BaseSamplerRequest()
-        sampler = ComboSampler(
-            rep_p=base_sampler.repetition_penalty,
-            pres_p=base_sampler.presence_penalty,
-            freq_p=base_sampler.frequency_penalty,
-            rep_sustain_range=base_sampler.penalty_range,
-            rep_decay_range=base_sampler.penalty_range,
-            temperature=base_sampler.temperature,
-            min_p=base_sampler.min_p,
-            top_k=base_sampler.top_k,
-            top_p=base_sampler.top_p,
-            temp_last=base_sampler.temperature_last,
+        sampler_builder = ExllamaV3SamplerBuilder()
+
+        # Penalties
+
+        # Set penalty range
+        penalty_range = unwrap(params.penalty_range, self.max_seq_len)
+
+        # Exl3's version of including the entire context
+        if penalty_range < 0:
+            penalty_range = 10e7
+
+        # Always make sure the fallback is 0 if range < 0
+        # It's technically fine to use -1, but this just validates the passed
+        # fallback
+        # Always default to 0 if something goes wrong
+        if params.penalty_range < 0:
+            fallback_decay = 0
+        else:
+            fallback_decay = params.penalty_range
+
+        repetition_decay = coalesce(params.repetition_decay, fallback_decay, 0)
+
+        # Apply penalties to builder
+        sampler_builder.penalties(
+            params.repetition_penalty,
+            params.frequency_penalty,
+            params.presence_penalty,
+            penalty_range,
+            repetition_decay,
         )
 
+        # Apply temperature first to builder
+        if not params.temperature_last:
+            sampler_builder.temperature(params.temperature)
+
+        # Apply alphabet samplers to builder
+        sampler_builder.top_k(params.top_k)
+        sampler_builder.top_p(params.top_p)
+        sampler_builder.min_p(params.min_p)
+
+        # Apply temperature last to builder
+        if params.temperature_last:
+            sampler_builder.temperature(params.temperature)
+
+        # Build the sampler
+        # Set greedy if temperature is 0
+        sampler = sampler_builder.build(params.temperature == 0)
+
         # Dynamically scale penalty range to output tokens
         # Only do this if freq/pres pen is enabled
         # and the repetition range is -1
-        # TODO:
+        # TODO: This currently does not work in exl3
         # auto_scale_penalty_range = (
         #     gen_settings.token_frequency_penalty != 0
         #     or gen_settings.token_presence_penalty != 0
@@ -576,6 +638,7 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
             input_ids=self.tokenizer.encode(prompt, add_bos=False),
             max_new_tokens=max_tokens,
             stop_conditions=stop_conditions,
+            banned_strings=params.banned_strings,
         )
 
         generated_tokens = 0
@@ -585,6 +648,11 @@ class ExllamaV3Container(BaseModelContainer):
         # Get the generation status once it's ready
         try:
             async for result in job:
+                # Abort if the event is set while streaming
+                if abort_event and abort_event.is_set():
+                    await job.cancel()
+                    break
+
                 chunk = unwrap(result.get("text"), "")
                 if chunk:
                     chunk_tokens = result.get("token_ids", self.tokenizer.encode(chunk))
diff --git a/common/config_models.py b/common/config_models.py
index d2af39e..2965fe0 100644
--- a/common/config_models.py
+++ b/common/config_models.py
@@ -163,8 +163,10 @@ class ModelConfig(BaseConfigModel):
             "Example: ['max_seq_len', 'cache_mode']."
         ),
     )
+
+    # Defaults to exllamav2 in common/model.py
     backend: Optional[str] = Field(
-        "exllamav2",
+        None,
         description=(
             "Backend to use for this model (default: exllamav2)\n"
             "Options: exllamav2, exllamav3",