Scaling half-precision floating point tensors for training deep neural networks

A graphics processor is described that includes a single instruction, multiple thread (SIMT) architecture including hardware multithreading. The multiprocessor can execute parallel threads of instructions associated with a command stream, where the multiprocessor includes a set of functional units to execute at least one of the parallel threads of the instructions. The set of functional units can include a mixed precision tensor processor to perform tensor computations. The functional units can also include circuitry to analyze statistics for output values of the tensor computations, determine a target format to convert the output values, the target format determined based on the statistics for the output values and a precision associated with a second layer of the neural network, and convert the output values to the target format.