Cache-DiT Acceleration
SGLang integrates Cache-DiT, a caching acceleration engine for Diffusion Transformers (DiT), to achieve up to 1.69x inference speedup with minimal quality loss.
Overview
Cache-DiT uses intelligent caching strategies to skip redundant computation in the denoising loop:
- DBCache (Dual Block Cache): Dynamically decides when to cache transformer blocks based on residual differences
- TaylorSeer: Uses Taylor expansion for calibration to optimize caching decisions
- SCM (Step Computation Masking): Step-level caching control for additional speedup
Basic Usage
Enable Cache-DiT by exporting the environment variable and using sglang generate or sglang serve :
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_ENABLED=true \
sglang generate --model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
--prompt "A beautiful sunset over the mountains"
Diffusers Backend
Cache-DiT supports loading acceleration configs from a custom YAML file. For
diffusers pipelines (diffusers backend), pass the YAML/JSON path via --cache-dit-config. This
flow requires cache-dit >= 1.2.0 (cache_dit.load_configs).
Single GPU inference
Define a cache.yaml file that contains:
cache_config:
max_warmup_steps: 8
warmup_interval: 2
max_cached_steps: -1
max_continuous_cached_steps: 2
Fn_compute_blocks: 1
Bn_compute_blocks: 0
residual_diff_threshold: 0.12
enable_taylorseer: true
taylorseer_order: 1
Then apply the config with:
sglang generate \
--backend diffusers \
--model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
--cache-dit-config cache.yaml \
--prompt "A beautiful sunset over the mountains"
Distributed inference
- 1D Parallelism
Define a parallelism only config yaml parallel.yaml file that contains:
parallelism_config:
ulysses_size: auto
parallel_kwargs:
attention_backend: native
extra_parallel_modules: ["text_encoder", "vae"]
Then, apply the distributed inference acceleration config from yaml. ulysses_size: auto means that cache-dit will auto detect the world_size as the ulysses_size. Otherwise, you should manually set it as specific int number, e.g, 4.
Then apply the distributed config with: (Note: please add --num-gpus N to specify the number of gpus for distributed inference)
sglang generate \
--backend diffusers \
--num-gpus 4 \
--model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
--cache-dit-config parallel.yaml \
--prompt "A futuristic cityscape at sunset"
- 2D Parallelism
You can also define a 2D parallelism config yaml parallel_2d.yaml file that contains:
parallelism_config:
ulysses_size: auto
tp_size: 2
parallel_kwargs:
attention_backend: native
extra_parallel_modules: ["text_encoder", "vae"]
Then, apply the 2D parallelism config from yaml. Here tp_size: 2 means using tensor parallelism with size 2. The ulysses_size: auto means that cache-dit will auto detect the world_size // tp_size as the ulysses_size.
- 3D Parallelism
You can also define a 3D parallelism config yaml parallel_3d.yaml file that contains:
parallelism_config:
ulysses_size: 2
ring_size: 2
tp_size: 2
parallel_kwargs:
attention_backend: native
extra_parallel_modules: ["text_encoder", "vae"]
Then, apply the 3D parallelism config from yaml. Here ulysses_size: 2, ring_size: 2, tp_size: 2 means using ulysses parallelism with size 2, ring parallelism with size 2 and tensor parallelism with size 2.
Hybrid Cache and Parallelism
Define a hybrid cache and parallel acceleration config yaml hybrid.yaml file that contains:
cache_config:
max_warmup_steps: 8
warmup_interval: 2
max_cached_steps: -1
max_continuous_cached_steps: 2
Fn_compute_blocks: 1
Bn_compute_blocks: 0
residual_diff_threshold: 0.12
enable_taylorseer: true
taylorseer_order: 1
parallelism_config:
ulysses_size: auto
parallel_kwargs:
attention_backend: native
extra_parallel_modules: ["text_encoder", "vae"]
Then, apply the hybrid cache and parallel acceleration config from yaml.
sglang generate \
--backend diffusers \
--num-gpus 4 \
--model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
--cache-dit-config hybrid.yaml \
--prompt "A beautiful sunset over the mountains"
Advanced Configuration
DBCache Parameters
DBCache controls block-level caching behavior:
| Parameter | Env Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fn | SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_FN |
1 | Number of first blocks to always compute |
| Bn | SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_BN |
0 | Number of last blocks to always compute |
| W | SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_WARMUP |
4 | Warmup steps before caching starts |
| R | SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_RDT |
0.24 | Residual difference threshold |
| MC | SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_MC |
3 | Maximum continuous cached steps |
TaylorSeer Configuration
TaylorSeer improves caching accuracy using Taylor expansion:
| Parameter | Env Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enable | SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_TAYLORSEER |
false | Enable TaylorSeer calibrator |
| Order | SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_TS_ORDER |
1 | Taylor expansion order (1 or 2) |
Combined Configuration Example
DBCache and TaylorSeer are complementary strategies that work together, you can configure both sets of parameters simultaneously:
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_ENABLED=true \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_FN=2 \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_BN=1 \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_WARMUP=4 \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_RDT=0.4 \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_MC=4 \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_TAYLORSEER=true \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_TS_ORDER=2 \
sglang generate --model-path black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev \
--prompt "A curious raccoon in a forest"
SCM (Step Computation Masking)
SCM provides step-level caching control for additional speedup. It decides which denoising steps to compute fully and which to use cached results.
SCM Presets
SCM is configured with presets:
| Preset | Compute Ratio | Speed | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
none |
100% | Baseline | Best |
slow |
~75% | ~1.3x | High |
medium |
~50% | ~2x | Good |
fast |
~35% | ~3x | Acceptable |
ultra |
~25% | ~4x | Lower |
Usage
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_ENABLED=true \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_SCM_PRESET=medium \
sglang generate --model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
--prompt "A futuristic cityscape at sunset"
Custom SCM Bins
For fine-grained control over which steps to compute vs cache:
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_ENABLED=true \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_SCM_COMPUTE_BINS="8,3,3,2,2" \
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_SCM_CACHE_BINS="1,2,2,2,3" \
sglang generate --model-path Qwen/Qwen-Image \
--prompt "A futuristic cityscape at sunset"
SCM Policy
| Policy | Env Variable | Description |
|---|---|---|
dynamic |
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_SCM_POLICY=dynamic |
Adaptive caching based on content (default) |
static |
SGLANG_CACHE_DIT_SCM_POLICY=static |
Fixed caching pattern |
Environment Variables
All Cache-DiT parameters can be configured via environment variables. See Environment Variables for the complete list.
Supported Models
SGLang Diffusion x Cache-DiT supports almost all models originally supported in SGLang Diffusion:
| Model Family | Example Models |
|---|---|
| Wan | Wan2.1, Wan2.2 |
| Flux | FLUX.1-dev, FLUX.2-dev |
| Z-Image | Z-Image-Turbo |
| Qwen | Qwen-Image, Qwen-Image-Edit |
| Hunyuan | HunyuanVideo |
Performance Tips
- Start with defaults: The default parameters work well for most models
- Use TaylorSeer: It typically improves both speed and quality
- Tune R threshold: Lower values = better quality, higher values = faster
- SCM for extra speed: Use
mediumpreset for good speed/quality balance - Warmup matters: Higher warmup = more stable caching decisions
Limitations
- SGLang-native pipelines: Distributed support (TP/SP) is not yet validated; Cache-DiT will be automatically
disabled when
world_size > 1. - SCM minimum steps: SCM requires >= 8 inference steps to be effective
- Model support: Only models registered in Cache-DiT's BlockAdapterRegister are supported
Troubleshooting
SCM disabled for low step count
For models with < 8 inference steps (e.g., DMD distilled models), SCM will be automatically disabled. DBCache acceleration still works.