A B200 decoded-image LPIPS/SSIM sweep vs the dense bf16 VAE (new
scripts/quant_accuracy_sweep.py) settles the two VAE schemes:
- Layerwise fp8 (storage-only) holds across families (SSIM >= 0.977 on all but
SDXL), so auto now engages layerwise fp8 ONLY. For a VAE decode (a few percent
of end to end) fp8_dynamic's fp8-matmul speedup over storage fp8 is negligible,
so auto never takes the accuracy risk.
- fp8_dynamic (torchao PerTensor conv compute) is in-bar on only FLUX.2 and
Hunyuan and out-of-bar or catastrophic elsewhere (Qwen-Image SSIM 0.46), so it
is now an explicit opt-in, re-gated by a per-family deny list derived from the
sweep. SDXL denies both schemes (its small VAE stays dense).
Also fixes a real decode-time crash: torchao 0.17's fp8 conv kernel rejects
pointwise (1x1 / 1x1x1) convs ("Activation and filter channels must match"), so
an explicit fp8_dynamic request cast fine then threw at the first decode on most
families. The conv filter now keeps 1x1 convs dense, the smoke probe uses a
spatial 3x3 conv (so it exercises the path that actually runs), and an explicit
fp8_dynamic request runs that probe before casting.
Tests updated for the fp8-only auto ladder, the 1x1 exclusion, the explicit
probe gate, and the shipped deny list.
