Large Diffusion Models Need More Than EMA

Abstract: Large-scale diffusion models are commonly trained with a constant learning rate (LR) and exponential moving average (EMA), despite the strong performance of LR decay and Schedule-Free optimization in training LLMs. We study whether EMA is uniquely suited to diffusion training, or whether stronger alternatives have been underexplored. Our theory shows that averaging a constant-step trajectory has an inherent optimization limitation, whereas LR decay and Schedule-Free optimization admit vanishing stationarity guarantees under standard nonconvex assumptions. Empirically, LR decay and EMA provide complementary benefits: combining decay with EMA further improves the standard baseline at most tested starting points, although the gain remains sensitive to when decay begins. Schedule-Free avoids this timing requirement and consistently outperforms EMA with a constant LR across training stages, achieving both lower fixed-evaluation objectives and better generation quality. Our analysis further shows that all three strategies substantially reduce parameter variability, yet stronger stabilization is not always better: EMA with a constant LR retains comparatively higher parameter variability, while aggressive decay combined with EMA achieves the lowest checkpoint variability but also weakens continued optimization. Schedule-Free substantially reduces parameter variability while preserving more late-stage progress, providing a better balance between parameter stability and continued optimization. Finally, the benefits of Schedule-Free extend beyond pretraining to ReFL and generator-side DMD, demonstrating its transferability across distinct diffusion optimization settings. Overall, our results suggest that large diffusion models need more than parameter averaging alone: effective optimization requires balancing variance reduction with continued optimization.