SDXL 1.0 on 6 GB of VRAM
Not entirely. Even 16-bit is 1.1 GB over 6 GB, so ComfyUI keeps part of it in system RAM. The 2023 classic. One 6.9 GB checkpoint with the text encoders and VAE inside, and the biggest library of LoRAs and fine-tunes.
Nothing fits entirely, but 16-bit (6.9 GB) overflows by only about 1.1 GB. ComfyUI keeps that part in system RAM automatically: slower than a full fit, but usable.
01Other amounts of VRAM
02Every file, on 6 GB
| File | Size | Needed | On this card | Quality | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-bit ← SAFETENSORS · stabilityai | 6.9 GB | 7.1 GB | spills 1.1 GB | the original weights | Hugging Face → |
“Needed” adds 1.2 GB of working memory for SDXL and a 0.8 GB reserve. Sizes 2026-10-01. The 6.94 GB checkpoint also holds the two text encoders and the VAE. During sampling only the UNet (about 5.1 GB at 16-bit, 2.6B parameters) has to sit in VRAM, so that is the figure used for the 16-bit file.
03What to download
| Part | File | Folder | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checkpoint | sd_xl_base_1.0.safetensors 16-bit · stabilityai/stable-diffusion-xl-base-1.0 | models/checkpoints | 6.9 GB | Download → |
| Total download · keep about the same free on disk | 6.9 GB | |||
One file: the checkpoint already contains the text encoders and the VAE. Sizes from Hugging Face, 2026-10-01.
04The text encoder
The text encoder is inside the checkpoint, so there is nothing extra to download.