We study compute efficiency of LLM training when using different parameterizations, i.e., rules for adjusting model and optimizer hyperparameters (HPs) as model size changes. Some parameterizations fail to transfer optimal base HPs (such as learning rate) across changes in model depth, requiring practitioners to either re-tune these HPs as they scale up (expensive), or accept sub-optimal training when re-tuning is prohibitive. Even when they achieve HP transfer, we develop theory to show parameterizations may still exist in the lazy learning regime where layers learn only features close to their linearization, preventing effective use of depth and nonlinearity. Finally, we identify and adopt the parameterization we call CompleteP that achieves both depth-wise HP transfer and non-lazy learning in all layers. CompleteP enables a wider range of model width/depth ratios to remain compute-efficient, unlocking shapes better suited for different hardware settings and operational contexts. Moreover, CompleteP enables 12-34% compute efficiency improvements over the prior state-of-the-art.
View on arXiv@article{dey2025_2505.01618,
title={ Don't be lazy: CompleteP enables compute-efficient deep transformers },
author={ Nolan Dey and Bin Claire Zhang and Lorenzo Noci and Mufan Li and Blake Bordelon and Shane Bergsma and Cengiz Pehlevan and Boris Hanin and Joel Hestness },
journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.01618},
year={ 2025 }
}