diff --git a/.vscode/launch.json b/.vscode/launch.json
index 89fd528a..b6b358cd 100644
--- a/.vscode/launch.json
+++ b/.vscode/launch.json
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
             "request": "launch",
             "program": "${cwd}/scripts/main.py",
             "console": "integratedTerminal",
-            "args": ["--no-search", "--algos", "darts", "--nas.eval.final_desc_filename", "models/final_model_desc.yaml"]
+            "args": ["--no-search", "--algos", "darts", "--nas.eval.final_desc_filename", "models/darts/final_model_desc1.yaml"]
         },
         {
             "name": "Darts-E2E-Toy",
diff --git a/archai/common/apex_utils.py b/archai/common/apex_utils.py
index 382e7e5c..59a2f158 100644
--- a/archai/common/apex_utils.py
+++ b/archai/common/apex_utils.py
@@ -34,9 +34,6 @@ class ApexUtils:
         # to avoid circular references= with common, logger is passed from outside
         self.logger = logger
 
-        self._op_map = {'mean': dist.ReduceOp.SUM, 'sum': dist.ReduceOp.SUM,
-                    'min': dist.ReduceOp.MIN, 'max': dist.ReduceOp.MAX}
-
         # defaults for non-distributed mode
         self._amp, self._ddp = None, None
         self.world_size = 1
@@ -50,6 +47,9 @@ class ApexUtils:
         #_log_info({'apex_config': apex_config.to_dict()})
         self._log_info({'torch.distributed.is_available': dist.is_available()})
         if dist.is_available():
+            # dist.* properties are otherwise not accessible
+            self._op_map = {'mean': dist.ReduceOp.SUM, 'sum': dist.ReduceOp.SUM,
+                        'min': dist.ReduceOp.MIN, 'max': dist.ReduceOp.MAX}
             self._log_info({'gloo_available': dist.is_gloo_available(),
                         'mpi_available': dist.is_mpi_available(),
                         'nccl_available': dist.is_nccl_available()})
diff --git a/confs/algos/darts.yaml b/confs/algos/darts.yaml
index 93fbbecd..4cf2e85c 100644
--- a/confs/algos/darts.yaml
+++ b/confs/algos/darts.yaml
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ nas:
     trainer:
       apex:
         _copy: 'common/apex'
-        enabled: True
+        enabled: False
       aux_weight: '_copy: nas/eval/model_desc/aux_weight'
       drop_path_prob: 0.2 # probability that given edge will be dropped
       grad_clip: 5.0 # grads above this value is clipped