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Feature Request: Add AdaBelief Optimizer #2479

@jganbar

Description

@jganbar

Summary

I would like to propose adding the AdaBelief optimizer to MLX's optimizer suite. AdaBelief is a modern adaptive optimizer that has shown superior performance compared to Adam across various machine learning tasks.

Why AdaBelief?

Proven Performance

  • Consistently outperforms Adam on image classification, language modeling, and machine translation tasks
  • Achieves faster convergence and better generalization in most scenarios
  • More stable training dynamics, especially in later stages of training

Research Impact & Adoption

  • Published at NeurIPS 2020 by researchers from Yale University
  • 400+ citations since publication, showing strong research community adoption
  • Already implemented in major frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX)
  • Widely used by practitioners and researchers

Technical Advantages

  • Same computational cost as Adam (no additional overhead)
  • Same memory requirements as Adam
  • Drop-in replacement for Adam in existing workflows
  • Numerically stable with proper epsilon handling

MLX-Specific Benefits

  • Perfect fit for Apple Silicon optimization due to similar computational pattern to Adam
  • Can leverage MLX's unified memory model efficiently
  • Enhances MLX's appeal to the research community
  • Aligns with MLX's goal of providing modern ML tools

References

  1. Original Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.07468
  2. Official Implementation: https://github.com/juntang-zhuang/Adabelief-Optimizer
  3. PyTorch Documentation: Available in torch.optim

I'm excited to contribute to MLX and help expand its optimizer ecosystem. Looking forward to your feedback and guidance on how to proceed.

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