LTX-Video and CogVideoX: Fast Local Options

Why You Need Fast Options

Wan 2.2 at 14B parameters produces excellent video quality, but each generation can take several minutes depending on clip length and hardware. For rapid iteration — testing prompts, exploring motion styles, generating variations — a faster model is more practical. LTX-Video and CogVideoX fill this role: they sacrifice some quality for significantly faster generation and, in some cases, lower VRAM requirements.

LTX-Video (LTX-2.3): Speed and Audio

LTX-Video from Lightricks is the fastest open video generation model available in 2026. LTX-2 was released in January 2026 with 19 billion parameters and native support for:

• 4K resolution at up to 50 FPS
• Clips up to 20 seconds
• Synchronized audio generation (the only open model with this feature)
• Multiple control modes: text-to-video, image-to-video, depth-guided, pose-guided, canny-guided

LTX-Video is built into ComfyUI core as of recent versions — check if the LTX nodes appear in your node menu. If not, install via Manager (search "LTXVideo" and install "ComfyUI-LTXVideo" from Lightricks).

The built-in workflow templates include LTX-2 options. Load the T2V template from the Workflow Templates panel to get a pre-wired setup. The core nodes are: LTXTVideoModel Loader → LTXTVideo Sampler → LTXTVideo Decode → Video Combine.

LTX-Video's speed advantage is most pronounced for shorter clips (5–10 seconds) at medium resolution (720p). For clips where you need audio synchronization alongside the video, LTX-2 is the only local option. The audio generation node connects to the same sampler as the video generation, producing synchronized audio from a text description of the sound.

CogVideoX-5B-Lite: The 12 GB VRAM Option

CogVideoX from Zhipu AI generates 6-second clips at 480p and requires approximately 12 GB VRAM for the 5B-Lite variant. This makes it accessible on RTX 3080 and similar GPUs that cannot comfortably run Wan 2.2 14B.

Install CogVideoX via ComfyUI-Manager (search "CogVideoX" — install the node package that appears). Download the CogVideoX-5B-Lite model from Hugging Face and place it in ComfyUI/models/. The workflow is simpler than Wan 2.2: CogVideo Model Loader → CogVideoX Sampler → CogVideoX Decode → Video Combine.

CogVideoX produces lower quality than Wan 2.2 14B but is a practical option for users who cannot meet Wan's VRAM requirements. It handles scene transitions and camera movement less smoothly than the larger models but generates acceptable results for simple scenes and motion.

Choosing Between LTX, CogVideoX, and Wan 2.2

• Use LTX-Video when: you need fast iteration, want audio + video together, are working at 4K resolution, or generating clips longer than 10 seconds
• Use CogVideoX when: you have 12–14 GB VRAM and cannot run Wan 2.2 14B, or you need a simpler workflow for quick tests
• Use Wan 2.2 14B when: quality is the priority and you have sufficient VRAM — it produces the best-looking video output at the 14B scale with better temporal coherence than CogVideoX
• Use HunyuanVideo when: you need the highest quality cinematic output and have 24 GB VRAM available (covered in Lesson 7)

In a real production pipeline, LTX-Video is useful for rapid prompt testing and variation exploration, with Wan 2.2 or HunyuanVideo used for final quality renders of approved concepts.