Model comparison
Llama 3.1-70B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 29.6 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
Meta
NVIDIASummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.1-70B 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 math, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 37.5 to 13.5.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $0.40 for Llama 3.1-70B.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Llama 3.1-70B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | NVIDIA |
| Noometry Index | 29.6 | 40.0 |
| Released | 2024-07-23 | 2026-08-11 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 128K | 262K |
| Max output | 4K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $0.20 |
| Results tracked | 35 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Llama 3.1-70B: 30.3 (#296), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1260 | 1375 |
| WeirdML | 9% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 46.1% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 54.8% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Llama 3.1-70B: 25.1 (#112), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| TheAgentCompany | 6.9% | — |
| BALROG | 27.9% | — |
Reasoning Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Llama 3.1-70B: 21.6 (#220), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1241 | 1337 |
| DTBench | 60% | — |
| LMCA | 14.8% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 125.92 | — |
Math Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Llama 3.1-70B: 13.5 (#304), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1252 | 1359 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 3.6% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 21% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 36.7% | — |
Knowledge Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Llama 3.1-70B: 24.2 (#269), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1209 | 1356 |
| GPQA Diamond | 44.2% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 65.3% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 42.6% | — |
| MMLU | 80.1% | — |
Multilingual Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Llama 3.1-70B: 38.8 (#225), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1219 | 1295 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1215 | 1359 |
| LMArena French | 1261 | 1366 |
| LMArena German | 1222 | 1282 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1132 | 1206 |
| LMArena Korean | 1140 | 1238 |
| LMArena Russian | 1234 | 1253 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1253 | 1345 |
Instruction Following Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Llama 3.1-70B: 65.3 (#223), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1231 | 1318 |
| IFEval | 82.1% | — |
Long Context Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Llama 3.1-70B: 37.6 (#214), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1241 | 1314 |
Writing & Preference Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Llama 3.1-70B: 35.4 (#267), Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-70B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1261 | 1327 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1232 | 1254 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 784 | 1280 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1256 | 1328 |
| WildBench | 75.8% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Llama 3.1-70B better than Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 29.6 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1-70B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens; Llama 3.1-70B lists at $0.40 and $0.40.
Is Llama 3.1-70B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better for coding?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 30.3 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning does, with 262K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Llama 3.1-70B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.1-70B has 35 scored results on Noometry and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18.