# Granite 4.2 8B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Granite 4.2 8B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/granite-4-2-8b-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4
- Last updated: October 15, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 9
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Granite 4.2 8B leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Granite 4.2 8B has the higher overall point estimate 33.4 to 26.31. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in instruction following, where the averages are 86.5 for Granite 4.2 8B and 71.4 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is τ³-bench results in Agentic, with scores of 58.1% and 9.5%.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 also has the larger context window at 1M.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | IBM | NVIDIA |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 128K | 1M |
| Overall Score | 33.4 | 26.31 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 14 | 13 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 15.7 (Estimated · #113/127)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 16.3 (Estimated · #112/127)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 23.5% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 |
| τ³-bench results | 58.1% | 9.5% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| BFCL v4 | 52.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| PinchBench | Coming soon | 83.4% | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | Coming soon | 36.8% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 17.2 (Estimated · #125/150)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 16 (Estimated · #131/150)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 47.7% | 52.8% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 |
| SWE-bench Pro | 19.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | 30.8% | 36.5% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 23.5% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 73.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SciCode | 36.1% | 31.4% | Granite 4.2 8B |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 56.8 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 59.6 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 30.6 (Supported · #154/184)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 30 (Estimated · #156/184)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 64.1% | 75.6% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 |
| MMLU-Pro | 74.0% | 81.6% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 |
| GPQA-D | Coming soon | 75.6% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/o tools | Coming soon | 10.5% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Granite 4.2 8B
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 86.5 (#41/146)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 71.4 (#69/146)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.3% | 72.9% | Granite 4.2 8B |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | 86.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | 78.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Granite 4.2 8B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4?

Granite 4.2 8B has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between Granite 4.2 8B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4?

The widest category gap is in instruction following, where the averages are 86.5 for Granite 4.2 8B and 71.4 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4.

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

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

### How many benchmarks does Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 cover on BenchLM?

Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 currently has 13 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4)

## Explore More

- [Granite 4.2 8B profile](/models/granite-4-2-8b)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 profile](/models/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)