Model comparison
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIA
MicrosoftSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher in 8 categories and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 48.5 to 27.1.
Side by side
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | NVIDIA | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 40.0 | 29.7 |
| Released | 2026-08-11 | 2024-04-23 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | — |
| Max output | 262K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.20 | — |
| Results tracked | 18 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 40.4 (#141), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.8 (#312)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1375 | 1039 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 29.6% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 40.6% |
Reasoning Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 26.8 (#127), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 19.6 (#256)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1337 | 1028 |
Math Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#155), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 31.6 (#222)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1359 | 1089 |
Knowledge Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 37.5 (#154), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.8 (#254)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1356 | 984 |
Multilingual Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#180), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.2 (#285)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1295 | 1000 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1359 | 1016 |
| LMArena French | 1366 | 1039 |
| LMArena German | 1282 | 1006 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1206 | 899 |
| LMArena Korean | 1238 | 856 |
| LMArena Russian | 1253 | 1004 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1345 | 1059 |
Instruction Following Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.6 (#170), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 51.8 (#294)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1318 | 1023 |
Long Context Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#165), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.4 (#289)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1314 | 996 |
Writing & Preference Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#201), Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.1 (#301)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1327 | 1050 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1254 | 1024 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1328 | 989 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1280 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.0 to 29.7 on the Noometry Index.
Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better for coding?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 28.8 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19.