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FIX: Use decoupled gradients for precision-aware M-FSDP grad norm - #3746

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cspades merged 4 commits into
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XueSongTap:main
Apr 2, 2026
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FIX: Use decoupled gradients for precision-aware M-FSDP grad norm#3746
cspades merged 4 commits into
NVIDIA:mainfrom
XueSongTap:main

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@XueSongTap XueSongTap commented Mar 9, 2026

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What does this PR do ?

When Megatron FSDP is used with the precision-aware optimizer, update_main_grads() stores gradients on param.decoupled_grad instead of param.grad. https://github.com/NVIDIA/Megatron-LM/blob/main/megatron/core/optimizer/optimizer.py#L149

get_main_grads_for_grad_norm() previously prioritized the FSDP param.grad._local_tensor path, which could miss the actual gradient used by the optimizer and produce an incorrect grad norm for clipping. https://github.com/NVIDIA/Megatron-LM/blob/main/megatron/core/distributed/fsdp/src/megatron_fsdp/param_and_grad_buffer.py#L2873

Prioritize the precision-aware decoupled_grad path so grad norm and clip grad are computed from the correct gradient source.

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…e M-FSDP

Signed-off-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
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XueSongTap requested review from a team as code owners March 9, 2026 02:32
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svcnvidia-nemo-ci marked this pull request as draft March 9, 2026 02:32
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@XueSongTap
XueSongTap marked this pull request as ready for review March 9, 2026 02:35
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@svcnvidia-nemo-ci svcnvidia-nemo-ci added the Final Review PR is in the "final review" stage label Mar 9, 2026
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@shjwudp shjwudp added Expert Review [deprecated] Apply this label to indicate that your PR is ready for expert review. and removed Final Review PR is in the "final review" stage labels Mar 9, 2026
…rad norm

Signed-off-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>

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Nice spot! Appreciate you fixing the bug!

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shjwudp commented Mar 9, 2026

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/ok to test cb189e4

@svcnvidia-nemo-ci svcnvidia-nemo-ci added this to the Core 0.16 milestone Mar 9, 2026
@chtruong814 chtruong814 added the needs-follow-up Issue needs follow-up label Mar 11, 2026
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cspades commented Apr 1, 2026

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/ok to test 462443c

@svcnvidia-nemo-ci svcnvidia-nemo-ci added the Final Review PR is in the "final review" stage label Apr 1, 2026
@chtruong814 chtruong814 removed the needs-follow-up Issue needs follow-up label Apr 1, 2026
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cspades enabled auto-merge April 1, 2026 23:48
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cspades added this pull request to the merge queue Apr 1, 2026
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🔄 Merge queue validation started!

You can track the progress here: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Megatron-LM/actions/runs/23883346737

Merged via the queue into NVIDIA:main with commit a52ceeb Apr 2, 2026
62 of 64 checks passed
yangbofun pushed a commit to xlm-research/Megatron-LM that referenced this pull request May 22, 2026
…IDIA#3746)

Signed-off-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
Co-authored-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
Co-authored-by: Cory Ye <44509866+cspades@users.noreply.github.com>
yhgalaxy pushed a commit to yhgalaxy/Megatron-LM that referenced this pull request Jun 17, 2026
…IDIA#3746)

Signed-off-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
Co-authored-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
Co-authored-by: Cory Ye <44509866+cspades@users.noreply.github.com>
Signed-off-by: yhgalaxy <yhgalaxy@outlook.com>
jon-barker pushed a commit to jon-barker/Megatron-LM that referenced this pull request Jul 10, 2026
…IDIA#3746)

Signed-off-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
Co-authored-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
Co-authored-by: Cory Ye <44509866+cspades@users.noreply.github.com>
Signed-off-by: Jon Barker <jbarker@aws-cmh-slurm-1-vscode-02.cm.cluster>
Caozhou1995 pushed a commit to flagos-ai/Megatron-LM-FL that referenced this pull request Jul 17, 2026
# Description
NVIDIA#4024
NVIDIA#3746
NVIDIA#2799
NVIDIA#3676
NVIDIA#4133
NVIDIA#3295
NVIDIA#3831
NVIDIA#3754


## Type of change

- [ ] New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
- [ ] Infra/Build change (changes to CI/CD workflows or build scripts)
- [ ] Code refactoring
- [ ] Documentation change
- [x] Bug fix
- [ ] Breaking change

## Changes

- Content 1
- Content 2
- Content 3
- Content 4

## Checklist

- [ ] I have read and followed the contributing guidelines
- [ ] The functionality is complete
- [ ] I have commented my code, particularly in coverage report
uploading steps
- [ ] I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
- [ ] My changes generate no new warnings
- [ ] I have added/updated tests that prove my feature works
- [ ] New and existing unit tests pass locally

---------

Signed-off-by: Cory Ye <cye@nvidia.com>
Signed-off-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
Signed-off-by: Akshat Kumar <akshat230405@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Youngeun Kwon <youngeunk@nvidia.com>
Signed-off-by: jinliangl <jinliangl@nvidia.com>
Co-authored-by: Ritesh Patel <ripatel@nvidia.com>
Co-authored-by: Cory Ye <cye@nvidia.com>
Co-authored-by: Cory Ye <44509866+cspades@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Xiaochuan Ye <tap91624@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
Co-authored-by: Akshat8510 <akshat230405@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Kunlun Li <94586211+kunlunl@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: eternally-z <zzywzj@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Philip Petrakian <ppetrakian@nvidia.com>
Co-authored-by: Youngeun Kwon <youngeunk@nvidia.com>
Co-authored-by: xuwchen <xuwenc@nvidia.com>
Co-authored-by: Li Jinliang <jinliangl@nvidia.com>
terminator123 pushed a commit to 021ai/Megatron-LM that referenced this pull request Aug 3, 2026
…IDIA#3746)

Signed-off-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
Co-authored-by: yexiaochuan <yexiaochuan@baidu.com>
Co-authored-by: Cory Ye <44509866+cspades@users.noreply.github.com>
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8 participants