When Multi-Token Prediction Backfires: A Performance Reality Check

Multi-token prediction promises significant speedups in LLM inference, but benchmark numbers often don't translate to real-world performance. Understanding the three technical bottlenecks—acceptance rate, KV cache thrashing, and CUDA graph failures—is essential for developers optimizing production inference pipelines. This analysis reveals why MTP can actually slow things down and provides the diagnostic framework needed to fix it.