Reducing Energy Bloat in Large Model Training
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Abstract (arXiv)
Training large AI models on numerous GPUs consumes a massive amount of energy, making power delivery one of the largest limiting factors in building and operating datacenters for AI workloads. However, we observe that not all energy consumed during training directly contributes to end-to-end throughput; a significant portion can be removed without slowing down training. We call this portion energy bloat. In this work, we identify two independent sources of energy bloat in large model training and propose Perseus, a training system that mitigates both. To do this, Perseus obtains the time--energy tradeoff frontier of a large model training job using an efficient graph cut-based algorithm, and schedules computation energy consumption across time to reduce both types of energy bloat. Evaluation on large models, including GPT-3 and Bloom, shows that Perseus reduces the energy consumption of large model training by up to 30% without any throughput loss or hardware modification.
Key facts. Cited by 22 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 37 of its 91 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 12 Dec 2023.
Builds on
37 of 91 references.
References · 37
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Citing papers per year: 2024: 1; 2025: 7; 2026: 14.
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- 2026Where Do the Joules Go? Diagnosing Inference Energy Consumption29 Jan 2026
- 2026Kareus: Joint Reduction of Dynamic and Static Energy in Large Model Training25 Jan 2026
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- 2025Magneton: Optimizing Energy Efficiency of ML Systems via Differential Energy Debugging9 Dec 2025
- 2025ELANA: A Simple Energy and Latency Analyzer for LLMs7 Dec 2025
- 2025Active Inference AI Systems for Scientific Discovery26 Jun 2025
- 2025The ML.ENERGY Benchmark: Toward Automated Inference Energy Measurement and Optimization9 May 2025
- 2025One Search Fits All: Pareto-Optimal Eco-Friendly Model Selection2 May 2025
- 2025Good things come in small packages: Should we build AI clusters with Lite-GPUs?17 Jan 2025
- 2025Characterizing LLM Inference Energy-Performance Tradeoffs across Workloads and GPU Scaling14 Jan 2025
- 2024Input-Dependent Power Usage in GPUs26 Sep 2024
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- 2026Nalar: An agent serving framework8 Jan 2026
- 2025The ML.ENERGY Benchmark: Toward Automated Inference Energy Measurement and Optimizationcited by 33
- 2025Characterizing LLM Inference Energy-Performance Tradeoffs across Workloads and GPU Scalingcited by 19
- 2026Where Do the Joules Go? Diagnosing Inference Energy Consumptioncited by 10
- 2026Kareus: Joint Reduction of Dynamic and Static Energy in Large Model Trainingcited by 3
- 2025ELANA: A Simple Energy and Latency Analyzer for LLMscited by 2
- 2024Input-Dependent Power Usage in GPUscited by 1
- 2025Good things come in small packages: Should we build AI clusters with Lite-GPUs?cited by 1
- 2025One Search Fits All: Pareto-Optimal Eco-Friendly Model Selectioncited by 1
- 2025Active Inference AI Systems for Scientific Discoverycited by 1
- 2025Magneton: Optimizing Energy Efficiency of ML Systems via Differential Energy Debuggingcited by 0
- 2026Optimising for Energy Efficiency and Performance in Machine Learningcited by 0
- 2026Designing Datacenter Power Delivery Hierarchies for the AI Eracited by 0
12 most cited of 17 All 17 (JSON)
- 2026A principled approach for energy-efficient training via phase-aware GPU frequency tuning21 Sep 2026
- 2026Minibatch persistency, eight years later: what batch reuse costs in steps and joules, and what it saves in data12 Sep 2026
- 2026Characterizing Job Power Elasticity for Power-Flexible AI Training10 Sep 2026
- 2026Efficient Resource Optimization for Split Federated Learning18 Aug 2026
- 2026Evaluation of ML Resource Utilization Requires Model Life Cycle Assessment31 May 2026
- 2026Designing Datacenter Power Delivery Hierarchies for the AI Era15 May 2026
- 2026Where Do the Joules Go? Diagnosing Inference Energy Consumption29 Jan 2026
- 2026Kareus: Joint Reduction of Dynamic and Static Energy in Large Model Training25 Jan 2026
- 2026Optimising for Energy Efficiency and Performance in Machine Learning13 Jan 2026
- 2025Magneton: Optimizing Energy Efficiency of ML Systems via Differential Energy Debugging9 Dec 2025
- 2025ELANA: A Simple Energy and Latency Analyzer for LLMs7 Dec 2025
- 2025Active Inference AI Systems for Scientific Discovery26 Jun 2025
12 newest of 17 All 17 (JSON)