FLUX.1 [schnell] on 12 GB of VRAM
Not at full quality. The 16-bit and 8-bit files are too big for 12 GB; the largest that fits is Q5_K_S (8.3 GB). The 4-step distilled FLUX.1. Same size as dev, but needs only a few steps per image, and the licence is Apache-2.0.
Q5_K_S (8.3 GB) fits with only 1.4 GB to spare (about 10.6 GB of 12 GB). Quality: close; small differences in fine detail. For better quality, Q6_K (9.8 GB) also runs, with about 0.1 GB spilling into system RAM - a little slower, still practical.
Also try the FP8 file (11.9 GB) on NVIDIA GPUs. It does not fit entirely, but a current ComfyUI streams the overflow from RAM and native 8-bit files often beat a small GGUF that does fit. Dynamic VRAM →
01What to download
| Part | File | Folder | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | flux1-schnell-Q5_K_S.gguf Q5_K_S · city96/FLUX.1-schnell-gguf | models/unet | 8.3 GB | Download → |
| Text encoder | t5xxl_fp8_e4m3fn.safetensors T5-XXL FP8 · comfyanonymous/flux_text_encoders | models/text_encoders | 4.9 GB | Download → |
| Text encoder | clip_l.safetensors CLIP-L · comfyanonymous/flux_text_encoders | models/text_encoders | 0.2 GB | Download → |
| VAE | ae.safetensors FLUX.1 VAE (ae) · Comfy-Org/Lumina_Image_2.0_Repackaged | models/vae | 0.3 GB | Download → |
| Total download · keep about the same free on disk | 13.7 GB | |||
Alternatives: T5-XXL FP16 (9.8 GB). Sizes from Hugging Face, 2026-10-01.
Free ComfyUI workflow, tested on my RTX 5060 Ti: GGUF Q8_0 workflow (.json). Drag the file into ComfyUI. All workflows →
02Every file, on 12 GB
| File | Size | Needed | On this card | Quality | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-bit SAFETENSORS · black-forest-labs | 23.8 GB | 26.1 GB | 14.1 GB too big | the original weights | Hugging Face → |
| Q8_0 GGUF · city96 | 12.7 GB | 15.0 GB | 3.0 GB too big | practically identical to the original | Hugging Face → |
| FP8 SAFETENSORS · Kijai | 11.9 GB | 14.2 GB | 2.2 GB too big | practically identical to the original | Hugging Face → |
| Q6_K GGUF · city96 | 9.8 GB | 12.1 GB | spills 0.1 GB | very close to the original | Hugging Face → |
| Q5_K_S ← GGUF · city96 | 8.3 GB | 10.6 GB | fits · 1.4 GB spare | close; small differences in fine detail | Hugging Face → |
| Q4_K_S GGUF · city96 | 6.8 GB | 9.1 GB | fits · 2.9 GB spare | good; some loss in fine detail and text | Hugging Face → |
| Q3_K_S GGUF · city96 | 5.2 GB | 7.5 GB | fits · 4.5 GB spare | noticeable loss of detail | Hugging Face → |
| Q2_K GGUF · city96 | 4.0 GB | 6.3 GB | fits · 5.7 GB spare | heavy loss; a last resort | Hugging Face → |
“Needed” adds 1.5 GB of working memory for FLUX.1 schnell and a 0.8 GB reserve. Sizes 2026-10-01.