Model comparison
Granite 4.2 3b vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Granite 4.2 3b and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.4 vs 40.0), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIASummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 0 categories and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning in 7 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 3b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 39.4 | 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 | 11 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Too close to call
Granite 4.2 3b: 40.0 (#151), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1361 | 1375 |
Reasoning Too close to call
Granite 4.2 3b: 26.0 (#138), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1306 | 1337 |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 3b: —, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1359 |
Knowledge Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 36.3 (#171), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1315 | 1356 |
Multilingual Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 42.1 (#198), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 1295 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1269 | 1359 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 1253 |
| LMArena French | — | 1366 |
| LMArena German | — | 1282 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1206 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1238 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1345 |
Instruction Following Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 67.1 (#200), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1273 | 1318 |
Long Context Too close to call
Granite 4.2 3b: 39.2 (#185), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1291 | 1314 |
Writing & Preference Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Granite 4.2 3b: 47.2 (#212), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1293 | 1327 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1205 | 1254 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1290 | 1328 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1280 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Granite 4.2 3b and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.4 vs 40.0), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Is Granite 4.2 3b or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
They score almost the same on coding (40.0 vs 40.4); test both on your own repository before choosing.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.