系统梳理大模型优化器演进,从Adam到高效矩阵优化方法
Navigating LLM Valley: From AdamW to Memory-Efficient and Matrix-Based Optimizers
- 按系统与优化视角分类主流大模型优化器
- 提出需综合评估收敛性、稳定性、内存与实现复杂度
- 适合关注大模型训练效率的研究者与工程师
大规模语言模型训练需要不仅统计有效,且在极端规模下计算和内存高效的优化算法。尽管Adam仍是大规模语言模型预训练和微调的主导优化器,近期研究重新审视了优化栈的几乎每个组件:自适应矩估计、解耦权重衰减、内存占用、曲率近似、基于符号的更新、大批次稳定性、低秩梯度结构以及矩阵级正交化更新。本文从系统与优化角度综述大模型优化器设计,将文献分为经典一阶优化器、自适应优化器、内存高效变体、二阶与曲率感知方法、基于符号及发现式优化器、低秩与投影方法,以及如Muon等矩阵基优化器。同时讨论基准测试方法,包括超参数公平性、规模依赖性、时钟效率、令牌效率、内存开销和下游评估。我们认为,大模型优化器研究正进入新阶段:从单一算法加速宣称,转向严谨、尺度感知的对比,联合评估收敛性、稳定性、内存与实现复杂度。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Training large language models requires optimization algorithms that are not only statistically effective, but also computationally and memory efficient at extreme scale. Although Adam remains the dominant optimizer for large-scale language-model pretraining and fine-tuning, recent work has revisited nearly every component of the optimization stack: adaptive moment estimation, decoupled weight decay, memory footprint, curvature approximation, sign-based updates, large-batch stability, low-rank gradient structure, and matrix-wise orthogonalized updates. This survey reviews optimizer design for large language models through a systems-and-optimization lens. We organize the literature into classical first-order optimizers, adaptive optimizers, memory-efficient variants, second-order and curvature-aware methods, sign-based and discovered optimizers, low-rank and projection-based methods, and matrix-based optimizers such as Muon. We also discuss benchmarking methodology, including hyperparameter fairness, scale dependence, wall-clock efficiency, token efficiency, memory overhead, and downstream evaluation. We argue that optimizer research for LLMs is entering a new phase: moving from single-algorithm speedup claims toward rigorous, scale-aware comparisons that jointly evaluate convergence, stability, memory, and implementation complexity.
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