Model comparison
Granite 4.1 8b vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIASummary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.1 8b scores higher in 0 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 8 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 40.4 to 30.1.
Side by side
| Granite 4.1 8b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 37.4 | 40.0 |
| Released | — | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | — | 262K |
| Max output | — | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $0.20 |
| Results tracked | 13 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 30.1 (#297), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1312 | 1375 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1192 | — |
Reasoning Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 25.7 (#143), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1293 | 1337 |
Math Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 36.4 (#166), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1312 | 1359 |
Knowledge Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 36.1 (#174), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1309 | 1356 |
Multilingual Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 41.7 (#204), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1261 | 1295 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1337 | 1359 |
| LMArena Russian | 1240 | 1253 |
| LMArena French | — | 1366 |
| LMArena German | — | 1282 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1206 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1238 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1345 |
Instruction Following Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 66.9 (#203), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1269 | 1318 |
Long Context Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.1 8b: 38.7 (#193), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1275 | 1314 |
Writing & Preference Too close to call
Granite 4.1 8b: 48.1 (#204), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.1 8b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1290 | 1327 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1251 | 1254 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1268 | 1328 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1280 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.1 8b better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 37.4 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.1 8b or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 30.1 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.1 8b and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.1 8b has 13 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.