diff --git a/numalogic/registry/_serialize.py b/numalogic/registry/_serialize.py
index 8c726a37..6d966bc8 100644
--- a/numalogic/registry/_serialize.py
+++ b/numalogic/registry/_serialize.py
@@ -1,14 +1,25 @@
 import io
+import pickle
+from typing import Union
+
 import torch
 
+from numalogic.tools.types import artifact_t, state_dict_t
+
 
-# TODO: ADD other techniques and support for other serialization techniques
-def dumps(deserialized_object):
-    buf = io.BytesIO()
-    torch.save(deserialized_object, buf)
-    return buf.getvalue()
+def dumps(
+    deserialized_object: Union[artifact_t, state_dict_t],
+    pickle_protocol: int = pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL,
+) -> bytes:
+    buffer = io.BytesIO()
+    torch.save(deserialized_object, buffer, pickle_protocol=pickle_protocol)
+    serialized_obj = buffer.getvalue()
+    buffer.close()
+    return serialized_obj
 
 
-def loads(serialized_object):
+def loads(serialized_object: bytes) -> Union[artifact_t, state_dict_t]:
     buffer = io.BytesIO(serialized_object)
-    return torch.load(buffer)
+    deserialized_obj = torch.load(buffer)
+    buffer.close()
+    return deserialized_obj
diff --git a/tests/registry/test_serialize.py b/tests/registry/test_serialize.py
index 685047a4..274fb3d7 100644
--- a/tests/registry/test_serialize.py
+++ b/tests/registry/test_serialize.py
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
+import pickle
+import timeit
 import unittest
 
 from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
 from torchinfo import summary
 
-from numalogic.registry._serialize import loads, dumps
-
 from numalogic.models.autoencoder.variants import VanillaAE
+from numalogic.registry._serialize import loads, dumps
 
 
 class TestSerialize(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -21,3 +22,19 @@ def test_dumps_loads2(self):
         serialized_obj = dumps(model)
         deserialized_obj = loads(serialized_obj)
         self.assertEqual(model.mean_, deserialized_obj.mean_)
+
+    def test_benchmark_state_dict_vs_model(self):
+        model = VanillaAE(10, 2)
+        serialized_sd = dumps(model.state_dict())
+        serialized_obj = dumps(model)
+        elapsed_obj = timeit.timeit(lambda: loads(serialized_obj), number=100)
+        elapsed_sd = timeit.timeit(lambda: loads(serialized_sd), number=100)
+        self.assertLess(elapsed_sd, elapsed_obj)
+
+    def test_benchmark_default_vs_highest_protocol(self):
+        model = VanillaAE(10, 2)
+        serialized_default = dumps(model, pickle_protocol=pickle.DEFAULT_PROTOCOL)
+        serialized_highest = dumps(model, pickle_protocol=pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)
+        elapsed_default = timeit.timeit(lambda: loads(serialized_default), number=100)
+        elapsed_highest = timeit.timeit(lambda: loads(serialized_highest), number=100)
+        self.assertLess(elapsed_highest, elapsed_default)