V1-5-pruned-emaonly ^new^ -
Here is the breakdown of what this file is and the relevant paper you should cite.
EMA stands for . In machine learning, keeping an EMA version of the weights during training helps "smooth out" the model, making it more stable and less prone to "deep-fried" or glitchy results. For the end-user, "EMA-only" means you are getting the final, polished version of the model intended for generation, rather than a version meant for further training. Why is it Still So Popular?
Almost every popular custom model on sites like Civitai (e.g., Realistic Vision, DreamShaper) uses this file as its genetic foundation. v1-5-pruned-emaonly
Most "LoRAs" (small plugins that add specific styles or characters) and "ControlNets" (tools that give you precision over poses) were built specifically for v1.5.
A "full" model file often contains extra data used during the training process (like optimizer states) that isn't needed to actually generate images. A version strips away this "dead weight," reducing the file size from roughly 7GB down to about 4GB . This makes it faster to download and easier to load into your GPU’s VRAM without any loss in image quality. 3. "EMA Only" Here is the breakdown of what this file
He tried to break it. “A unicorn fighting a robot on Mars.”
Place the file in your specific web-UI folder (usually models/Stable-diffusion ). For the end-user, "EMA-only" means you are getting
The server fans spun up. Lights flickered. For thirty seconds, nothing. Then the image rendered.
The lab eventually shut down. Budget cuts. Before Kai left, he copied the file onto a small drive. He didn’t tell anyone.
It only requires about 4GB to 6GB of VRAM to run comfortably, making AI art accessible to almost anyone with a modern computer. How to Use It
This indicates you are using the efficient, high-quality inference version (pruned-emaonly) of the architecture described in the paper.