# Granite 4.2 3b vs Llama 2-7B

> Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 28.6 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-llama-2-7b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 11

## Summary

- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 3b scores higher in 7 categories and Llama 2-7B in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Granite 4.2 3b leads 47.9 to 28.1.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.2 3b | Llama 2-7B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Meta |
| Noometry Index | 39.0 | 28.6 |
| Rank | 163 | 315 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.2 3b: 39.4 (#146)
- Llama 2-7B: 28.7 (#302)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Llama 2-7B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1363 | 1002 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.2 3b: 25.0 (#136)
- Llama 2-7B: 15.1 (#309)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Llama 2-7B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1308 | 1009 |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| BIG-Bench Hard | — | 39.2% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 98.54 |
| HellaSwag | — | 77.2% |
| LAMBADA | — | 73.3% |
| PIQA | — | 78.8% |
| WinoGrande | — | 69.2% |

## Math

- Granite 4.2 3b: —
- Llama 2-7B: 28.2 (#231)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Llama 2-7B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1042 |
| GSM8K | — | 16.7% |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.2 3b: 35.6 (#169)
- Llama 2-7B: 27.7 (#243)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Llama 2-7B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1313 | 1036 |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | — | 45.9% |
| BoolQ | — | 77.9% |
| MMLU | — | 45.8% |
| OpenBookQA | — | 58.6% |
| TriviaQA | — | 73.7% |

## Multimodal

- Granite 4.2 3b: —
- Llama 2-7B: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Llama 2-7B |
|---|---|---|
| ScienceQA | — | 43.1% |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.2 3b: 42.4 (#193)
- Llama 2-7B: 23.9 (#288)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Llama 2-7B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1268 | 973 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1268 | 973 |
| LMArena Russian | 1249 | 995 |
| LMArena French | — | 969 |
| LMArena German | — | 978 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1007 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.2 3b: 67.2 (#195)
- Llama 2-7B: 51.0 (#293)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Llama 2-7B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1271 | 1006 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.2 3b: 39.3 (#179)
- Llama 2-7B: 30.4 (#282)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Llama 2-7B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1293 | 999 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.2 3b: 47.9 (#202)
- Llama 2-7B: 28.1 (#293)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 3b | Llama 2-7B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1295 | 1053 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1215 | 1033 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1293 | 1029 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.2 3b better than Llama 2-7B?

Granite 4.2 3b is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.0 to 28.6 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Granite 4.2 3b or Llama 2-7B better for coding?

Granite 4.2 3b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.4 versus 28.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 3b and Llama 2-7B share?

11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 3b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Llama 2-7B has 29.