Can the Mac 16 GB run Ideogram 4?
Not entirely. Even Q4_1 is 2.0 GB over 12.7 GB, so ComfyUI keeps part of it in system RAM.
The smallest sensible file, Q4_1 (6.2 GB (×2, both loaded)), needs about 14.7 GB - 2.0 GB more than Mac 16 GB has. ComfyUI can still run it by streaming part of the model from system RAM. How much slower that is depends on your ComfyUI version, the file format and the PCIe link - see the note below.
01With more VRAM
With 24 GB you could run Ideogram 4 at 8-bit or better (Q8_0, 10.1 GB) with no offloading: for example on the RTX 4090 24 GB, RTX 3090 24 GB, RX 7900 XTX 24 GB.
02Every Ideogram 4 file on 12.7 GB
| File | Size | Needed | On this card | Quality | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q8_0 GGUF · molbal | 10.1 GB ×2 | 22.6 GB | 9.9 GB too big | practically identical to the original | Hugging Face → |
| Q5_1 GGUF · molbal | 7.3 GB ×2 | 17.0 GB | 4.3 GB too big | close; small differences in fine detail | Hugging Face → |
| Q4_1 ← GGUF · molbal | 6.2 GB ×2 | 14.7 GB | 2.0 GB too big | good; some loss in fine detail and text | Hugging Face → |
“Needed” adds 1.5 GB of working memory for Ideogram 4 and a 0.8 GB reserve. Sizes 2026-10-01. Needs two transformer files loaded together (main + unconditional). GGUF files need the molbal fork of ComfyUI-GGUF. No 16-bit weights were released. FP8 and INT8 files are left out on a Mac: Apple GPUs cannot compute FP8, so ComfyUI either fails to load them or converts them back to 16-bit, which saves no memory. Use a 16-bit or GGUF file.
03What to download
| Part | File | Folder | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | ideogram4-transformer-q4_1.gguf main model Q4_1 · molbal/ideogram-4-gguf | models/unet | 6.2 GB | Download → |
| Model | ideogram4-unconditional_transformer-q4_1.gguf unconditional model, loaded together with the main one Q4_1 · molbal/ideogram-4-gguf | models/unet | 6.2 GB | Download → |
| Text encoder | qwen3vl_8b_fp8_scaled.safetensors Qwen3-VL 8B FP8 · Comfy-Org/Ideogram-4 | models/text_encoders | 10.6 GB | Download → |
| VAE | flux2-vae.safetensors FLUX.2 VAE · Comfy-Org/Ideogram-4 | models/vae | 0.3 GB | Download → |
| Total download · keep about the same free on disk | 23.3 GB | |||
On a Mac, FP8 text encoders do not load, so a 16-bit one is listed. Sizes from Hugging Face, 2026-10-01.
Shared memory: about 29.3 GB of your 16 GB. On this machine the model, the text encoder, the VAE and the operating system all use the same memory. That is about 13.3 GB more than there is. It still runs: while the model works, the system compresses or swaps the idle text encoder, so loading and changing the prompt get slower. A smaller file or text encoder avoids that. calculated
04Measured and reported results
Nobody has sent measured numbers for this pair yet. If you run Ideogram 4 on a Mac 16 GB, send your time per image and peak VRAM and it will appear here, credited.
05About the Mac 16 GB
A Mac with 16 GB shares that memory between the CPU and the GPU. On current macOS the GPU may use about 12.7 GB of it by default (older macOS versions: about 11.5 GB); that is the figure used here. ComfyUI can go past it, but macOS then starts compressing and swapping memory and everything slows down. ComfyUI runs on Apple GPUs through PyTorch's MPS backend. 16-bit and GGUF files work; FP8 and INT8 files do not save memory on a Mac, so they are skipped. Speed is the catch: even the fastest Macs are several times slower per image than a desktop RTX card. Chips sold with 16 GB: M1, M1 Pro, M2, M2 Pro, M3, M4, M5, M6 (memory bandwidth 68.25–200 GB/s - the higher, the faster). Everything about Macs and local AI →
16 GB unified · ~12.7 GB for the GPU · 68.25–200 GB/s · Apple Silicon. Everything that runs on it →
06Questions
How much VRAM does Ideogram 4 need?
Around 14.7 GB with the smallest file (Q4_1) and 20.9 GB with an 8-bit file (FP8).
Which Ideogram 4 file should I download for the Mac 16 GB?
Q4_1 (6.2 GB) from molbal/ideogram-4-gguf. Load it with Unet Loader (GGUF) from the ComfyUI-GGUF node pack.
FP8 or Q8_0 for Ideogram 4 on the Mac 16 GB?
Q8_0 (10.1 GB). The Mac 16 GB has no FP8 maths, so FP8 (9.3 GB) only saves memory and is a step further from the original.
How much do I need to download for Ideogram 4 on the Mac 16 GB?
23.3 GB: ideogram4-transformer-q4_1.gguf, ideogram4-unconditional_transformer-q4_1.gguf, qwen3vl_8b_fp8_scaled.safetensors, flux2-vae.safetensors.