Model comparison
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Qwen2-72B
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.3 to 29.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIA
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen2-72B in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads 36.9 to 21.2.
Side by side
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen2-72B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | NVIDIA | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.3 | 29.5 |
| Released | 2026-08-11 | 2024-06-07 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | — |
| Max output | 262K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.06 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.16 | — |
| Results tracked | 18 | 26 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.6 (#143), Qwen2-72B: 28.7 (#303)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1370 | 1196 |
| WeirdML | — | 11.3% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 38.5% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 54% |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: —, Qwen2-72B: 16.9 (#138)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| TheAgentCompany | — | 1.1% |
| METR Time Horizons | — | 29.9% |
Reasoning Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 25.7 (#128), Qwen2-72B: 22.2 (#184)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1335 | 1191 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 125.27 |
Math Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 34.7 (#156), Qwen2-72B: 27.9 (#232)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1355 | 1235 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 39.1% |
Knowledge Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 36.9 (#154), Qwen2-72B: 21.2 (#270)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1354 | 1171 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 40.8% |
| MMLU | — | 82.4% |
Multilingual Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 44.0 (#175), Qwen2-72B: 36.0 (#239)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1292 | 1176 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1356 | 1240 |
| LMArena French | 1369 | 1169 |
| LMArena German | 1280 | 1151 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1213 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1233 | 1083 |
| LMArena Russian | 1257 | 1169 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1321 | 1168 |
Instruction Following Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 69.8 (#166), Qwen2-72B: 62.0 (#236)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1317 | 1181 |
Long Context Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 39.9 (#160), Qwen2-72B: 36.1 (#230)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1312 | 1193 |
Writing & Preference Nemotron 3.5 Lightning leads
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: 48.5 (#198), Qwen2-72B: 41.0 (#236)
| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Qwen2-72B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1324 | 1203 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1254 | 1181 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1327 | 1195 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1280 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning better than Qwen2-72B?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.3 to 29.5 on the Noometry Index.
Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Qwen2-72B better for coding?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.6 versus 28.7 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Qwen2-72B share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning has 18 scored results on Noometry and Qwen2-72B has 26.