Work

NysAct: A Scalable Preconditioned Gradient Descent using Nyström Approximation

Year: 2024
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Adaptive gradient methods are computationally efficient and converge quickly, but they often suffer from poor generalization. In contrast, second-order methods enhance convergence and generalization but typically incur high computational and memory costs. In this work, we introduce NYSACT, a scalable first-order gradient preconditioning method that strikes a balance between state-of-the-art first-order and second-order optimization methods. NYSACT leverages an eigenvalue-shifted Nyström method to approximate the activation covariance matrix, which is used as a preconditioning matrix, significantly reducing time and memory complexities with minimal impact on test accuracy. Our experiments show that NYSACT not only achieves improved test accuracy compared to both first-order and second-order methods but also demands considerably less computational resources than existing second-order methods.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4406461985
FWCI: 0.294
Cites: 33
Cited by: 1
Related to: 10