With Google Consent Mode v1, if a user consents to cookie use by a specific Google tag, that tag works normally. In other words, it sends non-anonymized data via standard hits to Google's servers while writing and reading cookies on the user's browser.
Conversely, if a user refuses consent for cookie use by a specific Google tag, that tag sends anonymized data via “lightweight” pings to Google's servers without writing or reading cookies on the user's browser.