Illustrious XL / Pony (SDXL anime) on 6 GB of VRAM
Download Q8_0 (2.7 GB). With the model's working memory it needs about 4.7 GB, leaving 1.3 GB spare on 6 GB. Quality: practically identical to the original.
On RTX 40 and RTX 50 GPUs take the FP8 file instead of Q8_0: same class, faster there. On older NVIDIA, AMD and Intel GPUs Q8_0 is the better 8-bit file.
01What to download
| Part | File | Folder | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | illustrious-q8_0.gguf Q8_0 · calcuis/illustrious | models/unet | 2.7 GB | Download → |
| Total download · keep about the same free on disk | 2.7 GB | |||
The calcuis FP8 and GGUF files contain the UNet only: take the text encoders and VAE from any SDXL checkpoint, or use the 16-bit checkpoint if it fits. Sizes read from Hugging Face (2026-09-25). “Download” links start the file directly; the file name links are the same files the official ComfyUI workflows use.
System RAM: 16 GB or more. ComfyUI keeps the model file, the text encoder and the VAE in system RAM and moves them to the GPU as needed. With this set of files that is about 2.7 GB, plus roughly 6 GB for Windows, ComfyUI and a browser: 8.7 GB in total. With less RAM it still runs, but Windows starts swapping to disk and loading gets very slow. calculated
02Every file, on 6 GB
| File | Size | Needed | On this card | Quality | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-bit SAFETENSORS · OnomaAIResearch | 6.9 GB | 7.1 GB | spills 1.1 GB | the original weights | Hugging Face → |
| Q8_0 ← GGUF · calcuis | 2.7 GB | 4.7 GB | fits · 1.3 GB spare | practically identical to the original | Hugging Face → |
| FP8 SAFETENSORS · calcuis | 3.5 GB | 5.5 GB | fits · 0.5 GB spare | practically identical to the original | Hugging Face → |
| Q6_K GGUF · calcuis | 2.1 GB | 4.1 GB | fits · 1.9 GB spare | very close to the original | Hugging Face → |
| Q5_K_M GGUF · calcuis | 1.8 GB | 3.8 GB | fits · 2.2 GB spare | close; small differences in fine detail | Hugging Face → |
| Q4_K_M GGUF · calcuis | 1.5 GB | 3.5 GB | fits · 2.5 GB spare | good; some loss in fine detail and text | Hugging Face → |
| Q3_K_M GGUF · calcuis | 1.2 GB | 3.2 GB | fits · 2.8 GB spare | noticeable loss of detail | Hugging Face → |
| Q2_K GGUF · calcuis | 0.9 GB | 2.9 GB | fits · 3.1 GB spare | heavy loss; a last resort | Hugging Face → |
Sizes from the Hugging Face file listing, read 2026-09-25. “Needed” = file + 1.2 GB working memory for this model + 0.8 GB kept free for the system. The 6.94 GB checkpoint holds the UNet plus text encoders and VAE; only the UNet (about 5.1 GB) sits in VRAM while sampling. The GGUF and FP8 files from calcuis contain the UNet only.
03The text encoder
The text encoder is inside the checkpoint, so there is nothing extra to download.