Stable Diffusion 3.5 Medium on 8 GB of VRAM
Yes, but only just: 16-bit leaves 1.1 GB free on 8 GB. The 2.5B member of SD 3.5. The model itself is small; its T5 text encoder is bigger than the model.
Runs well
Yes, just.
16-bit (5.1 GB) fits with only 1.1 GB to spare (about 6.9 GB of 8 GB).
Best file16-bit
File size5.1 GB
VRAM needed~6.9 GB
System RAM32 GB+
Memory map · 8 GB GPU6.9 GB / 8 GB
04 GB8 GB
Weights 16-bit · 5.1 GBWorking memory · 1.0 GBReserve · 0.8 GBFree · 1.1 GB
calculated How this is counted.
01What to download
| Part | File | Folder | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | sd3.5_medium.safetensors 16-bit · stabilityai/stable-diffusion-3.5-medium | models/diffusion_models | 5.1 GB | Download → |
| Text encoder | t5xxl_fp8_e4m3fn.safetensors T5-XXL FP8 · Comfy-Org/stable-diffusion-3.5-fp8 | models/text_encoders | 4.9 GB | Download → |
| Text encoder | clip_l.safetensors CLIP-L · Comfy-Org/stable-diffusion-3.5-fp8 | models/text_encoders | 0.2 GB | Download → |
| Text encoder | clip_g.safetensors CLIP-G · Comfy-Org/stable-diffusion-3.5-fp8 | models/text_encoders | 1.4 GB | Download → |
| VAE | diffusion_pytorch_model.safetensors SD 3.5 VAE (gated repo: log in and accept the licence first) · stabilityai/stable-diffusion-3.5-medium | models/vae | 0.2 GB | Download → |
| Total download · keep about the same free on disk | 11.8 GB | |||
Alternatives: T5-XXL FP16 (9.8 GB). Sizes from Hugging Face, 2026-10-01.
02Every file, on 8 GB
| File | Size | Needed | On this card | Quality | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-bit ← SAFETENSORS · stabilityai | 5.1 GB | 6.9 GB | fits · 1.1 GB spare | the original weights | Hugging Face → |
| Q8_0 GGUF · city96 | 2.9 GB | 4.7 GB | fits · 3.3 GB spare | practically identical to the original | Hugging Face → |
| Q6_K GGUF · city96 | 2.3 GB | 4.1 GB | fits · 3.9 GB spare | very close to the original | Hugging Face → |
| Q5_K_M GGUF · city96 | 2.1 GB | 3.9 GB | fits · 4.1 GB spare | close; small differences in fine detail | Hugging Face → |
| Q4_K_M GGUF · city96 | 1.8 GB | 3.6 GB | fits · 4.4 GB spare | good; some loss in fine detail and text | Hugging Face → |
| Q3_K_M GGUF · city96 | 1.5 GB | 3.3 GB | fits · 4.7 GB spare | noticeable loss of detail | Hugging Face → |
“Needed” adds 1 GB of working memory for SD 3.5 Medium and a 0.8 GB reserve. Sizes 2026-10-01.