# dots3-note Preview vs Granite 4.2 8B

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for dots3-note Preview and Granite 4.2 8B across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/dots3-note-preview-vs-granite-4-2-8b
- Last updated: October 15, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 7
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

dots3-note Preview leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- dots3-note Preview has the higher overall point estimate 63.97 to 33.4. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in agentic, where the averages are 59.5 for dots3-note Preview and 15.7 for Granite 4.2 8B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench 2.1 in Agentic, with scores of 75.1% and 20.6%.
- dots3-note Preview also has the larger context window at 512K.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | dots3-note Preview | Granite 4.2 8B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Dots Studio | IBM |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 512K | 128K |
| Overall Score | 63.97 | 33.4 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 31 | 14 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: 59.5 (Estimated · #29/127)
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 15.7 (Estimated · #113/127)

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Claw-Eval | 73.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 75.1% | 20.6% | dots3-note Preview |
| Toolathlon-Verified | 55.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| skillsBench | 52.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| APEX-Agents | 30.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | 83.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HLE w/ tools | 52.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| DeepSearchQA | 92.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| WideResearch | 78.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| τ³-bench results | Coming soon | 58.1% | Coming soon |
| BFCL v4 | Coming soon | 52.4% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 17.2 (Estimated · #125/150)

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Codeforces | 3056.0 | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 91.5% | 73.2% | dots3-note Preview |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 75.1% | 20.6% | dots3-note Preview |
| SWE-bench Verified | 78.4% | 47.7% | dots3-note Preview |
| SWE Multilingual | 75.7% | 30.8% | dots3-note Preview |
| SWE-bench Pro | 61% | 19.1% | dots3-note Preview |
| NL2Repo | 49.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SciCode | Coming soon | 36.1% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: 76.6 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 56.8 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 81.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: 79.6 (Unranked · 10 rankable rows)
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SimpleVQA | 72.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMMU-Pro | 79.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MathVision | 87.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ZeroBench | 19.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CharXiv w/o tools | 83.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GDP.pdf (no tools) | 60.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| PerceptionBench | 53.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BabyVision | 50.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMVU | 79.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| VideoMMMU | 86.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 30.6 (Supported · #154/184)

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| HLE | 52.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA | Coming soon | 64.1% | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro | Coming soon | 74.0% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: dots3-note Preview
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: 89.1 (#31/146)
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 86.5 (#41/146)

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 80.4% | 79.3% | dots3-note Preview |
| IFEval | 93.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: Coming soon
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Granite 4.2 8B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IMOAnswerBench | 90.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| AIME 2025 | Coming soon | 86.7% | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | Coming soon | 78.3% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, dots3-note Preview or Granite 4.2 8B?

dots3-note Preview has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between dots3-note Preview and Granite 4.2 8B?

The widest category gap is in agentic, where the averages are 59.5 for dots3-note Preview and 15.7 for Granite 4.2 8B.

### How many benchmarks does dots3-note Preview cover on BenchLM?

dots3-note Preview currently has 31 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does Granite 4.2 8B cover on BenchLM?

Granite 4.2 8B currently has 14 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [dots3-note Preview vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/dots3-note-preview-vs-granite-4-2-30b)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [dots3-note Preview vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/dots3-note-preview-vs-granite-4-2-3b)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)

## Explore More

- [dots3-note Preview profile](/models/dots3-note-preview)
- [Granite 4.2 8B profile](/models/granite-4-2-8b)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)