diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 51d61aa46..d49c1c555 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -47,11 +47,17 @@
   - Flux: all-in-one safetensors  
     example: <https://civitai.com/models/646328?modelVersionId=1040235>  
   - Flux: do not recast quants  
-- **Offload** improvements:  
-  - faster and more compatible *balanced* mode  
+- **Memory** improvements:  
+  - faster and more compatible *balanced offload* mode  
   - balanced offload: units are now in percentage instead of bytes  
   - balanced offload: add both high and low watermark  
-    *note*: balanced offload is recommended method for offload when using any large models such as sd35 or flux
+    default is 25% for low-watermark (skip offload if memory usage is below 25%) and 70% high-watermark (must offload if memory usage is above 70%)  
+  - change-in-behavior:  
+    `lowvrwam` triggers *sequential offload*, also automatically triggered on systems with <=4GB vram  
+    all other systems use *balanced offload* by default (can be changed in settings)  
+    previous behavior was to use *model offload* on systems with <=8GB and `medvram` and no offload by default  
+  - VAE upcase is now disabled by default on all systems  
+    if you have issues with image decode, you'll need to enable it manually  
 - **UI**:  
   - improved stats on generate completion  
   - improved live preview display and performance  
diff --git a/configs/flux/vae/config.json b/configs/flux/vae/config.json
index b43183d0f..7ecb342c2 100644
--- a/configs/flux/vae/config.json
+++ b/configs/flux/vae/config.json
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
     "DownEncoderBlock2D",
     "DownEncoderBlock2D"
   ],
-  "force_upcast": true,
+  "force_upcast": false,
   "in_channels": 3,
   "latent_channels": 16,
   "latents_mean": null,
diff --git a/configs/sd15/vae/config.json b/configs/sd15/vae/config.json
index 55d78924f..2cba0e824 100644
--- a/configs/sd15/vae/config.json
+++ b/configs/sd15/vae/config.json
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
     "DownEncoderBlock2D",
     "DownEncoderBlock2D"
   ],
+  "force_upcast": false,
   "in_channels": 3,
   "latent_channels": 4,
   "layers_per_block": 2,
diff --git a/configs/sd3/vae/config.json b/configs/sd3/vae/config.json
index 58e7764fb..f6f4e8684 100644
--- a/configs/sd3/vae/config.json
+++ b/configs/sd3/vae/config.json
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
     "DownEncoderBlock2D",
     "DownEncoderBlock2D"
   ],
-  "force_upcast": true,
+  "force_upcast": false,
   "in_channels": 3,
   "latent_channels": 16,
   "latents_mean": null,
diff --git a/configs/sdxl/vae/config.json b/configs/sdxl/vae/config.json
index a66a171ba..1c7a60866 100644
--- a/configs/sdxl/vae/config.json
+++ b/configs/sdxl/vae/config.json
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
     "DownEncoderBlock2D",
     "DownEncoderBlock2D"
   ],
-  "force_upcast": true,
+  "force_upcast": false,
   "in_channels": 3,
   "latent_channels": 4,
   "layers_per_block": 2,
diff --git a/modules/shared.py b/modules/shared.py
index aa41a6fd6..068ee8b40 100644
--- a/modules/shared.py
+++ b/modules/shared.py
@@ -432,15 +432,15 @@ def get_default_modes():
                 cmd_opts.lowvram = True
                 default_offload_mode = "sequential"
                 log.info(f"Device detect: memory={gpu_memory:.1f} optimization=lowvram")
-            elif gpu_memory <= 8:
-                cmd_opts.medvram = True
-                default_offload_mode = "model"
-                log.info(f"Device detect: memory={gpu_memory:.1f} optimization=medvram")
+            # elif gpu_memory <= 8:
+            #     cmd_opts.medvram = True
+            #     default_offload_mode = "model"
+            #     log.info(f"Device detect: memory={gpu_memory:.1f} optimization=medvram")
             else:
-                default_offload_mode = "none"
-                log.info(f"Device detect: memory={gpu_memory:.1f} optimization=none")
+                default_offload_mode = "balanced"
+                log.info(f"Device detect: memory={gpu_memory:.1f} optimization=balanced")
     elif cmd_opts.medvram:
-        default_offload_mode = "model"
+        default_offload_mode = "balanced"
     elif cmd_opts.lowvram:
         default_offload_mode = "sequential"