Leveraging Second-Order Curvature for Efficient Learned Image Compression: Theory and Empirical Evidence

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Zhang, Yichi, Zhu, Fengqing
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Zhang, Yichi
Zhu, Fengqing
author_facet Zhang, Yichi
Zhu, Fengqing
contents Training learned image compression (LIC) models entails navigating a challenging optimization landscape defined by the fundamental trade-off between rate and distortion. Standard first-order optimizers, such as SGD and Adam, struggle with \emph{gradient conflicts} arising from competing objectives, leading to slow convergence and suboptimal rate-distortion performance. In this work, we demonstrate that a simple utilization of a second-order quasi-Newton optimizer, \textbf{SOAP}, dramatically improves both training efficiency and final performance across diverse LICs. Our theoretical and empirical analyses reveal that Newton preconditioning inherently resolves the intra-step and inter-step update conflicts intrinsic to the R-D objective, facilitating faster, more stable convergence. Beyond acceleration, we uncover a critical deployability benefit: second-order trained models exhibit significantly fewer activation and latent outliers. This substantially enhances robustness to post-training quantization. Together, these results establish second-order optimization, achievable as a seamless drop-in replacement of the imported optimizer, as a powerful, practical tool for advancing the efficiency and real-world readiness of LICs.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_20769
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publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Leveraging Second-Order Curvature for Efficient Learned Image Compression: Theory and Empirical Evidence
Zhang, Yichi
Zhu, Fengqing
Image and Video Processing
Machine Learning
Training learned image compression (LIC) models entails navigating a challenging optimization landscape defined by the fundamental trade-off between rate and distortion. Standard first-order optimizers, such as SGD and Adam, struggle with \emph{gradient conflicts} arising from competing objectives, leading to slow convergence and suboptimal rate-distortion performance. In this work, we demonstrate that a simple utilization of a second-order quasi-Newton optimizer, \textbf{SOAP}, dramatically improves both training efficiency and final performance across diverse LICs. Our theoretical and empirical analyses reveal that Newton preconditioning inherently resolves the intra-step and inter-step update conflicts intrinsic to the R-D objective, facilitating faster, more stable convergence. Beyond acceleration, we uncover a critical deployability benefit: second-order trained models exhibit significantly fewer activation and latent outliers. This substantially enhances robustness to post-training quantization. Together, these results establish second-order optimization, achievable as a seamless drop-in replacement of the imported optimizer, as a powerful, practical tool for advancing the efficiency and real-world readiness of LICs.
title Leveraging Second-Order Curvature for Efficient Learned Image Compression: Theory and Empirical Evidence
topic Image and Video Processing
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.20769