SDXL-Lightning (4-step) on Apple iPad Air 11-inch / 13-inch (M4)

Can the Apple iPad Air 11-inch / 13-inch (M4) run SDXL-Lightning (4-step)?

Yes, it runs great

Runs great. At FP8 it needs about 5.6 GB of 7.2 GB usable and takes about 12 s per image.

Best precision: FP8
Memory mode: Everything on GPU
Time per image: 12 s
Output: 1024×1024, 4 steps

Best app to run it on the Apple iPad Air 11-inch / 13-inch (M4)

On iOS

Draw Things

Desktop app · runs on Draw Things (Metal FlashAttention)

Runs the model on the device itself, offline: download it once in the app.

Get it on the App Store Then download SDXL-Lightning (4-step) in the app

How we choose: the files published for this model, your operating system and GPU, whether it fits fully in memory, and published speed tests (MLX vs llama.cpp on Apple silicon, vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama on NVIDIA). Details.

Download SDXL-Lightning (4-step)

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from ByteDance, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers, Diffusers or ComfyUI.

huggingface.co/ByteDance/SDXL-Lightning (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 7 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at FP8, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Runs great: How well it runs on the Apple iPad Air 11-inch / 13-inch (M4): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	23.8 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of unified memory the GPU can use; fewer when it goes past that limit.	25.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.	13.8 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	15.0 / 15
Match score	77.6 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every precision on the Apple iPad Air 11-inch / 13-inch (M4)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Memory mode	Runs	Quality	Download
`FP16`	3.8 GB	7.2 GB	—	—	Won't runover the app memory limit	54Fair quality (C) · 54 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 7/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Original weights (opens in a new tab)
`FP8`	5.6 GB	7.2 GB	12 s	Everything on GPU	Runs great	52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Other hardware that runs it

54Fair quality (C) · 54 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Intel Arc B580 FP16 · 2.9 s · Runs great
54Fair quality (C) · 54 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB FP16 · 2.9 s · Runs great
54Fair quality (C) · 54 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER FP16 · 1.3 s · Runs great
52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 FP8 · 2.3 s · Runs great
54Fair quality (C) · 54 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT FP16 · 0.9 s · Runs great
54Fair quality (C) · 54 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB FP16 · 1.9 s · Runs great

Quick answers

How much memory does SDXL-Lightning (4-step) need on the iPad Air 11-inch (M4)?

At FP8 it needs about 5.6 GB. The iPad Air 11-inch (M4) has 7.2 GB usable.

How long does SDXL-Lightning (4-step) take on the iPad Air 11-inch (M4)?

About 12 s per image at FP8 and default settings, an estimate scaled from a reference timing by this hardware’s compute speed.

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.