diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/models.py b/src/axolotl/utils/models.py
index 8b2b7ad6a..1fc47a87f 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/models.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/models.py
@@ -158,8 +158,8 @@ def load_model(
         for k, v in cfg.tokens.items():
             tokenizer.add_special_tokens({k: v})
 
-    if load_in_8bit and cfg.load_4bit:
-        logging.info("converting model w/ prepare_model_for_int8_training")
+    if cfg.adapter and load_in_8bit and not cfg.load_4bit:
+        logging.info("converting PEFT model w/ prepare_model_for_int8_training")
         model = prepare_model_for_int8_training(model)
 
     model, lora_config = load_adapter(model, cfg, adapter)
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/trainer.py b/src/axolotl/utils/trainer.py
index 4d4719969..73be3dbd2 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/trainer.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/trainer.py
@@ -17,9 +17,21 @@ def setup_trainer(cfg, train_dataset, eval_dataset, model, tokenizer):
     total_num_steps = int(
         math.ceil(len(train_dataset) * cfg.num_epochs / cfg.batch_size)
     )
-    warmup_steps = cfg.warmup_steps if cfg.warmup_steps is not None else min(int(0.03 * total_num_steps), 100)
-    logging_steps = cfg.logging_steps if cfg.logging_steps is not None else max(min(int(0.005 * total_num_steps), 10), 1)
-    save_steps = eval_steps = cfg.save_steps if cfg.save_steps is not None else min(int(0.05 * total_num_steps), 200)
+    warmup_steps = (
+        cfg.warmup_steps
+        if cfg.warmup_steps is not None
+        else min(int(0.03 * total_num_steps), 100)
+    )
+    logging_steps = (
+        cfg.logging_steps
+        if cfg.logging_steps is not None
+        else max(min(int(0.005 * total_num_steps), 10), 1)
+    )
+    save_steps = eval_steps = (
+        cfg.save_steps
+        if cfg.save_steps is not None
+        else min(int(0.05 * total_num_steps), 200)
+    )
 
     training_arguments_kwargs = {}
     if cfg.bf16 == "full":
@@ -31,19 +43,32 @@ def setup_trainer(cfg, train_dataset, eval_dataset, model, tokenizer):
     training_arguments_kwargs["logging_steps"] = logging_steps
     if cfg.gradient_checkpointing is not None:
         if cfg.load_4bit:
-            from alpaca_lora_4bit.gradient_checkpointing import apply_gradient_checkpointing
-            gradient_checkpointing_ratio = cfg.gradient_checkpointing_ratio if cfg.gradient_checkpointing_ratio else 1.0
-            apply_gradient_checkpointing(model, checkpoint_ratio=gradient_checkpointing_ratio)
+            from alpaca_lora_4bit.gradient_checkpointing import (
+                apply_gradient_checkpointing,
+            )
+
+            gradient_checkpointing_ratio = (
+                cfg.gradient_checkpointing_ratio
+                if cfg.gradient_checkpointing_ratio
+                else 1.0
+            )
+            apply_gradient_checkpointing(
+                model, checkpoint_ratio=gradient_checkpointing_ratio
+            )
         else:
-            training_arguments_kwargs["gradient_checkpointing"] = cfg.gradient_checkpointing
+            training_arguments_kwargs[
+                "gradient_checkpointing"
+            ] = cfg.gradient_checkpointing
     if cfg.fsdp:
         training_arguments_kwargs["fsdp"] = cfg.fsdp
         if cfg.fsdp_config:
             training_arguments_kwargs["fsdp_config"] = dict(cfg.fsdp_config)
 
-
     # deepspeed
-    if os.environ.get("ACCELERATE_USE_DEEPSPEED") == "true" and torch.cuda.device_count() > 1:
+    if (
+        os.environ.get("ACCELERATE_USE_DEEPSPEED") == "true"
+        and torch.cuda.device_count() > 1
+    ):
         if cfg.deepspeed:
             training_arguments_kwargs["deepspeed"] = cfg.deepspeed
         else:
@@ -62,12 +87,14 @@ def setup_trainer(cfg, train_dataset, eval_dataset, model, tokenizer):
         save_steps=save_steps,
         output_dir=cfg.output_dir,
         save_total_limit=3,
-        load_best_model_at_end=True if cfg.val_set_size > 0 and save_steps % eval_steps == 0 else False,
+        load_best_model_at_end=True
+        if cfg.val_set_size > 0 and save_steps % eval_steps == 0
+        else False,
         ddp_find_unused_parameters=False if cfg.ddp else None,
         group_by_length=cfg.group_by_length,
         report_to="wandb" if cfg.use_wandb else None,
         run_name=cfg.wandb_run_id if cfg.use_wandb else None,
-        optim=cfg.optimizer if cfg.optimizer != "adam8bit" else cfg.optimizer,
+        optim=cfg.optimizer if cfg.optimizer else None,
         lr_scheduler_type=cfg.lr_scheduler if cfg.lr_scheduler else None,
         weight_decay=cfg.weight_decay if cfg.weight_decay else 0.0,
         **training_arguments_kwargs,
@@ -78,22 +105,33 @@ def setup_trainer(cfg, train_dataset, eval_dataset, model, tokenizer):
     if cfg.optimizer == "adamw_anyprecision":
         if Path(cfg.torchdistx_path).exists():
             sys.path.append(cfg.torchdistx_path)
-            torchdistx = importlib.import_module('torchdistx')
-    if cfg.optimizer == "adam8bit" and not cfg.load_4bit and not "deepspeed" in training_arguments_kwargs:
+            importlib.import_module("torchdistx")
+    if (
+        cfg.optimizer == "adamw_bnb_8bit"
+        and not cfg.load_4bit
+        and not "deepspeed" in training_arguments_kwargs
+    ):
         decay_parameters = get_parameter_names(model, [nn.LayerNorm])
         decay_parameters = [name for name in decay_parameters if "bias" not in name]
         optimizer_grouped_parameters = [
             {
-                "params": [p for n, p in model.named_parameters() if n in decay_parameters],
+                "params": [
+                    p
+                    for n, p in model.named_parameters()
+                    if (n in decay_parameters and p.requires_grad)
+                ],
                 "weight_decay": training_args.weight_decay,
             },
             {
                 "params": [
-                    p for n, p in model.named_parameters() if n not in decay_parameters
+                    p
+                    for n, p in model.named_parameters()
+                    if (n not in decay_parameters and p.requires_grad)
                 ],
                 "weight_decay": 0.0,
             },
         ]
+
         optimizer = bnb.optim.Adam8bit(
             optimizer_grouped_parameters,
             betas=(training_args.adam_beta1, training_args.adam_beta2),