whatmodel.sh · find the best image models you can run

Best image models to run locally on a 8GB Mac

A leaderboard of the best image models you can run locally on a Mac with 8GB of memory. FLUX.2 [klein] 4B is #1 right now, followed by Playground v2 (1024px aesthetic) and Stable Diffusion XL 0.9 (base). Models are ranked by one score that combines 73 published benchmarks. Each model shows the download that fits and the command to run it.

15 models · scores combine 73 benchmarks · updated how it works · find a leaderboard · benchmark your machine
task[all tasks][text to image][image to image / editing]
Models for 8GB RAM · Apple Silicon → ~5GB fast · local only · reset
+ more
chip[M1][M2][M3][M4]
set[all sets][LMArena text-to-image · 197][CVTG-2K word accuracy · 3]

Filter the model list while keeping overall scores. Models without a shared score scale are not yet calibrated; select a set to see its own scores.

Detect your exact chip or graphics card:

curl -G whatmodel.sh/image -d max=0 --data-urlencode "mac=$(sysctl -n hw.memsize machdep.cpu.brand_string)"Mac

curl -G whatmodel.sh/image -d max=0 --data-urlencode "ram=$(awk '/MemT/{print $2}' /proc/meminfo)" --data-urlencode "nv=$(nvidia-smi --query-gpu=name,memory.total --format=csv,noheader 2>/dev/null)"Linux

curl.exe -G whatmodel.sh/image -d max=0 --data-urlencode "ram=$((gcim Win32_ComputerSystem).TotalPhysicalMemory)" --data-urlencode "nv=$(nvidia-smi --query-gpu=name,memory.total --format=csv,noheader 2>$null)"Windows

$ terminal

detecting your OS…

Run curl "whatmodel.sh/image?ram=8&gpu=apple&max=0"to get this list in your terminal (add &format=json for agents).

ram[8][16][24][32][48][64][96][128][192][256]GB
gpu[apple silicon][graphics card][none]
price[local][$0.001][$0.005][$0.02][$0.1][any]max per image

detecting your OS…

Score vs memory to run

#modelscore↓where↓speed↓RAM↓get itsources
#modelscore↓where↓speed↓RAM↓get itsources
97FLUX.2 [klein] 4B · mlx-4bit Black Forest Labs52±2local~2.9GBhow to run › LMArena leaderboard datasetQC-T2I-Bench: Scalable Question-Centric Text-to-Image Evaluation (Reliable Ranking, Fine-Grained Diagnosis, and Cost-Aware Routing)UltraText Bench: A Comprehensive Bilingual Benchmark for Evaluating Visual Text Rendering in Image Generation (arXiv:2610.09823v1)GEditBench v2: A Human-Aligned Benchmark for General Image Editing
139Playground v2 (1024px aesthetic) · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) Playground41±4*local~4.9GBhow to run › GenAI Arena: An Open Evaluation Platform for Generative Models (arXiv v3)
148Stable Diffusion XL 0.9 (base) · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) Stability AI40±6*local~4.9GBhow to run › WISE: A World Knowledge-Informed Semantic Evaluation for Text-to-Image Generation (arXiv v4)tgxs002/HPSv2 repository README, HPS v2 benchmark table
156SDXL-Lightning (4-step UNet) · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) ByteDance37±3*local~4.9GBhow to run › GenAI Arena: An Open Evaluation Platform for Generative Models (arXiv v3)SDXL-Lightning: Progressive Adversarial Diffusion Distillation (arXiv:2402.13929v3)
161SSD-1B · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) Segmind36±4*local~3.3GBhow to run › EvalMuse-40K: A Reliable and Fine-Grained Benchmark with Comprehensive Human Annotations for Text-to-Image Generation Model Evaluation (arXiv v2)
167Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) Stability AI34±1local~4.9GBhow to run › GenAI Arena: An Open Evaluation Platform for Generative Models (arXiv v3)EvalMuse-40K: A Reliable and Fine-Grained Benchmark with Comprehensive Human Annotations for Text-to-Image Generation Model Evaluation (arXiv v2)GenEval authors' results: djghosh13/geneval README and arXiv 2310.11513v1EvalAlign: Supervised Fine-Tuning Multimodal LLMs with Human-Aligned Data for Evaluating Text-to-Image Models (arXiv:2406.16562v3)ImagenWorld: Stress-Testing Image Generation Models with Explainable Human Evaluation on Open-ended Real-World TasksConceptMix: A Compositional Image Generation Benchmark with Controllable Difficulty (arXiv v1)+8
170SDXL-Turbo · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) Stability AI34±2local~4.9GBhow to run › GenAI Arena: An Open Evaluation Platform for Generative Models (arXiv v3)EvalMuse-40K: A Reliable and Fine-Grained Benchmark with Comprehensive Human Annotations for Text-to-Image Generation Model Evaluation (arXiv v2)ConceptMix: A Compositional Image Generation Benchmark with Controllable Difficulty (arXiv v1)SDXL-Lightning: Progressive Adversarial Diffusion Distillation (arXiv:2402.13929v3)
178Dreamlike Photoreal 2.0 · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) Dreamlike.art30±3local~2.1GBhow to run › EvalAlign: Supervised Fine-Tuning Multimodal LLMs with Human-Aligned Data for Evaluating Text-to-Image Models (arXiv:2406.16562v3)HEIM: Holistic Evaluation of Text-to-Image Models (arXiv 2311.04287v1)tgxs002/HPSv2 repository README, HPS v2 benchmark table
185Openjourney · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) PromptHero28±2local~2.1GBhow to run › GenAI Arena: An Open Evaluation Platform for Generative Models (arXiv v3)EvalAlign: Supervised Fine-Tuning Multimodal LLMs with Human-Aligned Data for Evaluating Text-to-Image Models (arXiv:2406.16562v3)ImagenHub: Standardizing the evaluation of conditional image generation models (arXiv v4)HEIM: Holistic Evaluation of Text-to-Image Models (arXiv 2311.04287v1)tgxs002/HPSv2 repository README, HPS v2 benchmark table
186Stable Diffusion v1.4 · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) CompVis27±2local~2.1GBhow to run › GenEval authors' results: djghosh13/geneval README and arXiv 2310.11513v1EvalAlign: Supervised Fine-Tuning Multimodal LLMs with Human-Aligned Data for Evaluating Text-to-Image Models (arXiv:2406.16562v3)ConceptMix: A Compositional Image Generation Benchmark with Controllable Difficulty (arXiv v1)ImageReward: Learning and Evaluating Human Preferences for Text-to-Image Generation (arXiv 2304.05977v4)HEIM: Holistic Evaluation of Text-to-Image Models (arXiv 2311.04287v1)tgxs002/HPSv2 repository README, HPS v2 benchmark table
187Stable Diffusion v1.3 · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) CompVis27±4*local~2.1GBhow to run › GenEval authors' results: djghosh13/geneval README and arXiv 2310.11513v1
188Stable Diffusion v1.1 · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) CompVis26±3local~2.1GBhow to run › GenEval authors' results: djghosh13/geneval README and arXiv 2310.11513v1TIFA: Accurate and Interpretable Text-to-Image Faithfulness Evaluation with Question Answering (arXiv v3)REAL: Realism Evaluation of Text-to-Image Generation Models for Effective Data Augmentation (arXiv:2502.10663v1)
189Stable Diffusion v1.2 · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) CompVis26±3*local~2.1GBhow to run › GenEval authors' results: djghosh13/geneval README and arXiv 2310.11513v1EvalMuse-40K: A Reliable and Fine-Grained Benchmark with Comprehensive Human Annotations for Text-to-Image Generation Model Evaluation (arXiv v2)
191Stable Diffusion v1.5 · q8_0 (sd.cpp --type) Stability AI26±2local~2.1GBhow to run › GenEval authors' results: djghosh13/geneval README and arXiv 2310.11513v1EvalAlign: Supervised Fine-Tuning Multimodal LLMs with Human-Aligned Data for Evaluating Text-to-Image Models (arXiv:2406.16562v3)EvalMuse-40K: A Reliable and Fine-Grained Benchmark with Comprehensive Human Annotations for Text-to-Image Generation Model Evaluation (arXiv v2)TIFA: Accurate and Interpretable Text-to-Image Faithfulness Evaluation with Question Answering (arXiv v3)HEIM: Holistic Evaluation of Text-to-Image Models (arXiv 2311.04287v1)Evaluating Numerical Reasoning in Text-to-Image Models (GeckoNum, arXiv v3)+1
193LCM Dreamshaper v7 · openvino-fp16 (OpenVINO GenAI) SimianLuo (LCM authors)23±4*local~3GBhow to run › GenAI Arena: An Open Evaluation Platform for Generative Models (arXiv v3)

+ 187 more don't fit your machine or budget · show them

202 of 202 catalogue models listed here · sources and licences

* new or thinly tested: ranked on too few benchmark results · † only the maker’s own numbers so far · ~RAM is estimated; full context may need more memory