A method of visual processing includes determining, during a conversion between a block of a video and a bitstream representation of the video, whether there is a switch from a first residual coding technique to a second residual coding technique based on a number of context coded bins per unit used in the first residual coding technique. The unit is included in the block, and coefficients of the unit are coded in the bitstream representation in multiple passes. The method also includes performing the conversion based on the determining.