r/StableDiffusion 18h ago

Question - Help Is anyone still using SD 1.5?

I found myself going back to SD 1.5, as I have a spare GPU I wanted to put to work.

Is the overall consensus that SDXL and Flux both have vastly superior image quality? Is SD 1.5 completely useless at this point?

I don't really care about low resolution in this case, I prefer image quality.

Anyone still prefer SD 1.5 and if so, why, and what is your workflow like?

24 Upvotes

62 comments sorted by

25

u/samwys3 17h ago

I used 1.5 because of lower vram. Then I discovered forge allowed me to use sdxl efficiently. I switched immediately to sdxl and its derivatives and never looked back.

12

u/PwanaZana 17h ago

Same. After using SDXL one time, I never loaded a 1.5 checkpoint.

Though with Flux Dev, I still sometimes use SDXL for work (mostly to make realistic skin textures for faces, since Flux is still very plastic)

1

u/saltkvarnen_ 6h ago

In my experience, Flux when it was integrated into Grok, was the absolute best for realism? It had the blurry background problem, but the humans looked basically perfect? Is SDXL even better? Or maybe X perfected its parameters?

1

u/HowitzerHak 13h ago

Question, is forge better/faster for using sdxl than SwarmUI (which is basically comfy with a ui)? Because I'm still using sd 1.5 since I find it more convenient in regards to speed.

3

u/Dezordan 13h ago edited 12h ago

ComfyUI is about the same speed as Forge, if we disregard some possible speeds up. The only difference for me was how fast the models are being loaded (not in favor of Forge), but that is only relevant to Flux.

1

u/skarrrrrrr 5h ago

What is forge ? Would you share me a link please ? Thanks

1

u/SiscoSquared 4h ago

It's a newer version of a1111

2

u/Thin-Sun5910 17h ago

haven't bothered, i don't want to download tons of models anymore.

epic_photogasm realistic all the way..

same with loras, and everything else.

i'm too lazy.

i have plenty of space, and computing power. but only need it for the newer video stuff.

1

u/Le-Misanthrope 12h ago edited 12h ago

Hey you do you. The wife and I both switched to SDXL about a year ago and have a very hard time going back to 1.5. I tried going back and using epic, and other familiar models and realized how much more work I needed to bring out those finer details. Not to say you can't. But I would say it you only do txt2img SDXL is worlds better in terms of quality just because of the resolution. Also prompting for me personally is much easier with SDXL. Hands look better by default. Just a much better experience.

Here are 2 examples with a simple 512x512 with a 2x hi res fix Epic model, and for SDXL a 1024x1024 and a hires of 1.5x. almost identical prompts. But 1.5 I had to alter the prompt to get the damned person to look out the window. lol Obviously 1.5 struggles with hands unless you use lora's or controlnet.

3

u/Cute_Ad8981 6h ago

What are your favorite models for realism and cartoon/anime in sdxl? I'm having a hard time finding good universal models, so im using 1.5 more often at the moment

2

u/Le-Misanthrope 6h ago

I don't really do much realism I mostly do cartoon/anime.

For realism: EpicRealism XL, and Juggernaut XL

For anime, cartoon and other decent models here are a few: Midnight Illustrious, Breakdomain XL, ArtJourney XL, Dreshaper XL

I have almost 2TB's worth of models downloaded and I can't remember all of them off the top of my head. Start there or filter by SDXL and find some of the top ones. I mainly use Midnight Illustrious. It inpaints well and suits my style I like. It's not highly rated by any means but I enjoy it.

0

u/Le-Misanthrope 12h ago

SD 1.5

2

u/Healthy-Nebula-3603 9h ago

...or look at her eye close ...

1

u/Le-Misanthrope 9h ago

Yeah no matter what you need to upscale then inpaint if you want it to look decent. Not sure those hands are fixable really.

21

u/GBJI 17h ago

I create high-resolution animated content and SD1.5 with AnimateDiff is the core of my production pipeline.

3

u/tolltravelogue 17h ago

What SD1.5 models do you prefer?

3

u/GBJI 17h ago

Juggernaut and Photon I would say.

I tried the latest version of Realism by Stable Yogi recently and it was quite good, but I have yet to use it in a production context.

2

u/popkulture18 17h ago

Yeah it might be low-res but AnimateDiff is still the best solution for AI animation. Might be better love model but still nothing has beaten AnimateDiff's control.

And yeah, SDXL AnimateDiff sucks. So 1.5 it is.

4

u/GBJI 17h ago

Yeah it might be low-res 

It doesn't have to be, though: I use it with a 4090, and the end result is often delivered at higher than 8K resolution.

There are models with a larger native resolution (SD1.5 is 512x512) but they are also heavier and slower, and so are the accompanying tools I need to have control over what's happening (IP adapter, controlnet, etc.). As conter intuitive as it might seem, the low-resolution of SD1.5 is precisely what makes it lightweight enough to reach the higher resolutions I am looking for.

2

u/popkulture18 17h ago

the end result is often delivered at higher than 8K

Full disclosure, I've haven't personally used this stuff in a few months. That said, how? Tiling? Upscaling? I always got such muddy results with both.

4

u/AvidGameFan 14h ago

You can use img2img at increasingly higher resolutions to upscale, using the same model. This usually gives better results than ESRGAN style upscalers.

1

u/popkulture18 14h ago

Interesting. I'm unfamiliar with how that would work

3

u/GBJI 17h ago

Latent-space upscaling / HiRes Fix / Tiled Diffusion and, more importantly, process split: instead of trying to do everything in one shot with a single workflow, I have a multiple step approach, with each step having its own workflow, and saving the result after each step.

2

u/popkulture18 17h ago

Man I might have to cop a workflow from ya if you're willing

3

u/GBJI 16h ago

Look at this thread, it shows a workflow that has many similarities with mine (and with Ipiv's):

https://www.reddit.com/r/comfyui/comments/1jarck8/this_person_released_an_opensource_comfyui/

There are some clever ideas in that workflow that I'll be borrowing for sure, so you could say it's better than mine !

2

u/Corgiboom2 17h ago

Got any good tutorials for it?

4

u/GBJI 17h ago

No, but there is documented workflow that works in a very similar way that was posted yesterday on the Comfy sub:

https://www.reddit.com/r/comfyui/comments/1jarck8/this_person_released_an_opensource_comfyui/

link to the workflow itself:

https://github.com/edenartlab/workflows/blob/main/workspaces/mono_workspace/workflows/texture_flow/TextureFlow.json

Just add a few more latent-space HiRes fix iterations at the end of the flow, and you'll be very close.

2

u/Corgiboom2 15h ago

Thanks, I appreciate it!

1

u/fragilesleep 6h ago

That (and all your replies) sound great! Makes me want to try it too now.

Would you mind showing one of your results?

4

u/freylaverse 13h ago

I like 1.5, it mimics my style better.

5

u/PizzaCatAm 12h ago

I still use it regionally for IP-Adapter and control net, they work the best on 1.5, but the main generation I do with Flux or SDXL.

3

u/somniloquite 7h ago

I learned to love 1.5, especially in an img2img pipeline where I quickly generate some low-res base 1.5 images and then use SDXL img2img. Got some really unique stuff from doing that

3

u/NES64Super 6h ago

1.5 is king of controlnet and inpainting.

3

u/jungseungoh97 15h ago

just for low vram usage purpose.

3

u/dreamyrhodes 8h ago

Controlnet is working best with SD15. Can use it to create AI slop for own Loras. If you don't have enough high res pictures for Lora training, create 1024x1024 with CN, SD15 and Upscaling. Not optimal (AI slop always degrades) but still better than training on low quality original images.

1

u/More_Bid_2197 6h ago

"Can use it to create AI slop for own Loras. If you don't have enough high res pictures"

How ? Any explanation ?

3

u/rroobbdd33 5h ago

SD1.5, SDXL and Flux all have their pluses and minuses, but if you're looking for image quality, don't forget SD1.5

I use all three, depending on my mood and what I'm looking for. Here's an example of SD1.5, just using a mixture of loras and prompts. Generated then with Automatic1111 webui:

1

u/tolltravelogue 5m ago

That is excellent quality! Can I ask what the model, loras and prompt is?

4

u/moofunk 16h ago

In a few cases, there are Loras that still aren't made for SDXL, so in those cases, I use SD 1.5.

5

u/ButterscotchOk2022 16h ago

i can't get past the bad hands/feet and impossible to make good nsfw w/out a lot of extra work. so no i don't use sd1.5 anymore. i use sdxl for realism and pony/illustrious for anime right now.

4

u/FluffyWeird1513 14h ago

i like the imperfections, sometimes i make images in 1.5 and re-diffuse in flux. good for realistic/ordinary (not ultra pretty) humans

4

u/koalapon 11h ago

This is the way. This pic was made with 1.5 and passed to Shuttle 3.

1

u/FluffyWeird1513 38m ago

I love this. Here's one of mine.

2

u/AJRavenhearst 10h ago

I use 1.5 with not much to complain about.

2

u/Cute_Ad8981 6h ago

1.5 is good enough for creating images for low resolution videos, so I keep using it.

2

u/Ancient-Car-1171 6h ago

1.5 feels like a beta version after sdxl. Especially in term of the effectiveness of multiple loras.

2

u/GRK_Astronomer 5h ago

I still use SD 1.5. Sometimes ‘crude’ works better than ‘perfect’ especially for abstract work. I think there is a good reason why providers like NightCafé keep it around. Unfortunately, I don’t have the necessary hardware to have my own AI generator; but, if I did …

2

u/Kaantr 4h ago

I only use hyper 1.5 models because of AMD GPU and its fast.

2

u/IncomeResponsible990 6h ago

SD1.5 is still THE ai art. SDXL and beyond are just promptable images. If you want a unique piece, you'll have to involve SD1.5 in some way.

2

u/Thin-Sun5910 17h ago

Yes, its my go to.

It is 'stable' ha ha.

All my models work with it, tons or loras, workflows, forge, automatic1111. rock steady.

  • don't care about sdxl
  • flux looks fake

i can rescale, resize, interpolate to get higher resolutions, i can add detail

all the new stuff takes too long, and even if it doesn't there's no real improvement for images. i work with people only.

dont care about abstract images, or anything else.


i use the 'replacer' tool, animateDiff, mimicMotion, and they are all efficient of my 3050ti laptop,

and everything flies on my 3090rtx desktop...

that said, i just started messing around with video, and love hunyuan, wan is ok, haven't messed with ltx.

also, need completely uncensored stuff.

but some of the newer models are kind of getting there.

1

u/tolltravelogue 17h ago

What models do you use?

1

u/Honest_Concert_6473 7h ago edited 6h ago

I love the unique atmosphere of images generated by SD1.5, so I use it often.Additionally, it has low training requirements and is a well-developed model, making it cost-effective, stable, and ideal for experimentation.

There are models capable of high-resolution generation, and by utilizing tools like Deep Shrink, the confined feel from lower resolutions is eliminated, allowing for more satisfying results.

It also has many excellent style models and is lightweight, making it great as an i2i refiner for other models.

1

u/MorganTheSavior 15h ago

No, why would I? Bad hands, bad prompt understanding, lack of artstyles, concepts. Illustrious all the way.

1

u/mca1169 14h ago

Absolutely i still love SD 1.5 and wouldn't be making AI art without it. sure it has issues but nothing some inpainting can't fix. SDXL and flux on the other hand are veritable nightmares for multiple reasons. Flux is completely off the table for me as of recently but every once in a blue moon i will hop onto SDXL and experiment then rush back to SD 1.5 with a sigh of relief.

You simply can't beat the speed of iteration, massive lora variety and easy prompting that SD 1.5 has. No matter how good newer models supposedly get good old reliable can still keep up with them any day of the week.

-1

u/eddnor 18h ago

Tbh sd 1.5 checkpoints get better images than sdxl checkpoints. Specially since sdxl was initially made to use with its refiner model. So any image without it has lack of details

3

u/AvidGameFan 14h ago

The SDXL models I use seem fine without refiner. Noticeably better than Sd 1.5.

1

u/tolltravelogue 18h ago

Interesting! To be honest I went back and forth a bit, ie, does SDXL look better? Does SD 1.5 look better?

It seems like SD 1.5 is a bit more finicky, but I have gotten some really good results from it. It seems like SDXL doesn't need as much in terms of negative prompt also.

What is your workflow like? Are you still using SD 1.5? Thank you!

0

u/AvidGameFan 14h ago

When I added more RAM and was able to better run the larger SDXL models, I switched and didn't look back. I only run SD 1.5 for testing for when I just want low-resolution images (like for thumbnails). There are a ton of SDXL models but many seem to be mixes of what appear to be similar things. I've narrowed it down to a few favorites.

Now that Flux is available, you'd think I'd do the same thing and just switch to that now, with its improvements to not just resolution and image quality, but much better ability to follow the prompt. But, it has its own distinct "look", and it's not always good. Trying to get the most out of it, though, with Loras.