Rectified Decoupled Dataset Distillation: A Closer Look for Fair and Comprehensive Evaluation

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Zhong, Xinhao, Sun, Shuoyang, Gu, Xulin, Zhu, Chenyang, Chen, Bin, Wang, Yaowei
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866911412662566912
author Zhong, Xinhao
Sun, Shuoyang
Gu, Xulin
Zhu, Chenyang
Chen, Bin
Wang, Yaowei
author_facet Zhong, Xinhao
Sun, Shuoyang
Gu, Xulin
Zhu, Chenyang
Chen, Bin
Wang, Yaowei
contents Dataset distillation aims to generate compact synthetic datasets that enable models trained on them to achieve performance comparable to those trained on full real datasets, while substantially reducing storage and computational costs. Early bi-level optimization methods (e.g., MTT) have shown promising results on small-scale datasets, but their scalability is limited by high computational overhead. To address this limitation, recent decoupled dataset distillation methods (e.g., SRe$^2$L) separate the teacher model pre-training from the synthetic data generation process. These methods also introduce random data augmentation and epoch-wise soft labels during the post-evaluation phase to improve performance and generalization. However, existing decoupled distillation methods suffer from inconsistent post-evaluation protocols, which hinders progress in the field. In this work, we propose Rectified Decoupled Dataset Distillation (RD$^3$), and systematically investigate how different post-evaluation settings affect test accuracy. We further examine whether the reported performance differences across existing methods reflect true methodological advances or stem from discrepancies in evaluation procedures. Our analysis reveals that much of the performance variation can be attributed to inconsistent evaluation rather than differences in the intrinsic quality of the synthetic data. In addition, we identify general strategies that improve the effectiveness of distilled datasets across settings. By establishing a standardized benchmark and rigorous evaluation protocol, RD$^3$ provides a foundation for fair and reproducible comparisons in future dataset distillation research.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_19743
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Rectified Decoupled Dataset Distillation: A Closer Look for Fair and Comprehensive Evaluation
Zhong, Xinhao
Sun, Shuoyang
Gu, Xulin
Zhu, Chenyang
Chen, Bin
Wang, Yaowei
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Dataset distillation aims to generate compact synthetic datasets that enable models trained on them to achieve performance comparable to those trained on full real datasets, while substantially reducing storage and computational costs. Early bi-level optimization methods (e.g., MTT) have shown promising results on small-scale datasets, but their scalability is limited by high computational overhead. To address this limitation, recent decoupled dataset distillation methods (e.g., SRe$^2$L) separate the teacher model pre-training from the synthetic data generation process. These methods also introduce random data augmentation and epoch-wise soft labels during the post-evaluation phase to improve performance and generalization. However, existing decoupled distillation methods suffer from inconsistent post-evaluation protocols, which hinders progress in the field. In this work, we propose Rectified Decoupled Dataset Distillation (RD$^3$), and systematically investigate how different post-evaluation settings affect test accuracy. We further examine whether the reported performance differences across existing methods reflect true methodological advances or stem from discrepancies in evaluation procedures. Our analysis reveals that much of the performance variation can be attributed to inconsistent evaluation rather than differences in the intrinsic quality of the synthetic data. In addition, we identify general strategies that improve the effectiveness of distilled datasets across settings. By establishing a standardized benchmark and rigorous evaluation protocol, RD$^3$ provides a foundation for fair and reproducible comparisons in future dataset distillation research.
title Rectified Decoupled Dataset Distillation: A Closer Look for Fair and Comprehensive Evaluation
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.19743