Model comparison
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.3 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIASummary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 3.0 2b Instruct scores higher in 0 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 48.5 to 29.8.
Side by side
| Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 30.2 | 39.3 |
| Released | — | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | — | 262K |
| Max output | — | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.06 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $0.16 |
| Results tracked | 13 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 27.8 (#311), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.6 (#143)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1090 | 1370 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 20.5% | — |
Reasoning Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 19.6 (#234), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 25.7 (#128)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1073 | 1335 |
Math Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 29.7 (#215), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 34.7 (#156)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1117 | 1355 |
Knowledge Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 28.4 (#238), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 36.9 (#154)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1064 | 1354 |
Multilingual Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 27.1 (#273), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#175)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1033 | 1292 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1070 | 1356 |
| LMArena Russian | 1045 | 1257 |
| LMArena French | — | 1369 |
| LMArena German | — | 1280 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1213 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1233 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1321 |
Instruction Following Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 54.2 (#279), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.8 (#166)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1056 | 1317 |
Long Context Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 32.5 (#263), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#160)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1071 | 1312 |
Writing & Preference Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 3.0 2b Instruct: 29.8 (#287), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#198)
| Benchmark | Granite 3.0 2b Instruct | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1080 | 1324 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1046 | 1254 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1053 | 1327 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1280 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 3.0 2b Instruct better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.3 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 3.0 2b Instruct or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.6 versus 27.8 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 3.0 2b Instruct and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 3.0 2b Instruct has 13 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.