Full-Graph vs. Mini-Batch Training: Comprehensive Analysis from a Batch Size and Fan-Out Size Perspective
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arXiv
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2026
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| Acceso en línea: | |
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| _version_ | 1866917504164560896 |
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| author | Liu, Mengfan Zheng, Da Su, Junwei Wu, Chuan |
| author_facet | Liu, Mengfan Zheng, Da Su, Junwei Wu, Chuan |
| contents | Full-graph and mini-batch Graph Neural Network (GNN) training approaches have distinct system design demands, making it crucial to choose the appropriate approach to develop. A core challenge in comparing these two GNN training approaches lies in characterizing their model performance (i.e., convergence and generalization) and computational efficiency. While a batch size has been an effective lens in analyzing such behaviors in deep neural networks (DNNs), GNNs extend this lens by introducing a fan-out size, as full-graph training can be viewed as mini-batch training with the largest possible batch size and fan-out size. However, the impact of the batch and fan-out size for GNNs remains insufficiently explored. To this end, this paper systematically compares full-graph vs. mini-batch training of GNNs through empirical and theoretical analyses from the view points of the batch size and fan-out size. Our key contributions include: 1) We provide a novel generalization analysis using the Wasserstein distance to study the impact of the graph structure, especially the fan-out size. 2) We uncover the non-isotropic effects of the batch size and the fan-out size in GNN convergence and generalization, providing practical guidance for tuning these hyperparameters under resource constraints. Finally, full-graph training does not always yield better model performance or computational efficiency than well-tuned smaller mini-batch settings. The implementation can be found in the github link: https://github.com/LIUMENGFAN-gif/GNN_fullgraph_minibatch_training. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_22678 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Full-Graph vs. Mini-Batch Training: Comprehensive Analysis from a Batch Size and Fan-Out Size Perspective Liu, Mengfan Zheng, Da Su, Junwei Wu, Chuan Machine Learning Full-graph and mini-batch Graph Neural Network (GNN) training approaches have distinct system design demands, making it crucial to choose the appropriate approach to develop. A core challenge in comparing these two GNN training approaches lies in characterizing their model performance (i.e., convergence and generalization) and computational efficiency. While a batch size has been an effective lens in analyzing such behaviors in deep neural networks (DNNs), GNNs extend this lens by introducing a fan-out size, as full-graph training can be viewed as mini-batch training with the largest possible batch size and fan-out size. However, the impact of the batch and fan-out size for GNNs remains insufficiently explored. To this end, this paper systematically compares full-graph vs. mini-batch training of GNNs through empirical and theoretical analyses from the view points of the batch size and fan-out size. Our key contributions include: 1) We provide a novel generalization analysis using the Wasserstein distance to study the impact of the graph structure, especially the fan-out size. 2) We uncover the non-isotropic effects of the batch size and the fan-out size in GNN convergence and generalization, providing practical guidance for tuning these hyperparameters under resource constraints. Finally, full-graph training does not always yield better model performance or computational efficiency than well-tuned smaller mini-batch settings. The implementation can be found in the github link: https://github.com/LIUMENGFAN-gif/GNN_fullgraph_minibatch_training. |
| title | Full-Graph vs. Mini-Batch Training: Comprehensive Analysis from a Batch Size and Fan-Out Size Perspective |
| topic | Machine Learning |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.22678 |