# Granite 4.2 8B vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Granite 4.2 8B and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B 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-super-vl-120b-a12b-nvfp4
- Last updated: October 15, 2026

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

## Quick Verdict

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 has the higher overall point estimate 58 to 33.4. 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 68.1 for Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is τ³-bench results in Agentic, with scores of 58.1% and 17.8%.
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 also has the larger context window at 1M.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | IBM | NVIDIA |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 128K | 1M |
| Overall Score | 33.4 | null |
| Benchmarks Covered | 14 | 18 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | Pricing unavailable / Pricing unavailable |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 15.7 (Estimated · #113/127)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 60.8% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 |
| τ³-bench results | 58.1% | 17.8% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| BFCL v4 | 52.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| τ²-bench Airline | Coming soon | 75.8% | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | Coming soon | 77.5% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 17.2 (Estimated · #125/150)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 47.7% | 71.1% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 |
| SWE-bench Pro | 19.1% | 51.3% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 |
| SWE Multilingual | 30.8% | 67% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 73.2% | 87.4% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 |
| SciCode | 36.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 56.8 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 public-lane score: 72.4 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 public-lane score: 59.5 (Unranked · 5 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| BabyVision | Coming soon | 29.5% | Coming soon |
| MMLongBench-Doc | Coming soon | 62.8% | Coming soon |
| V* | Coming soon | 86.0% | Coming soon |
| MathVision | Coming soon | 77.8% | Coming soon |
| CharXiv | Coming soon | 79.9% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 30.6 (Supported · #154/184)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 64.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro | 74.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA-D | Coming soon | 89.9% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/o tools | Coming soon | 31.4% | Coming soon |
| HLE | Coming soon | 29% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Granite 4.2 8B
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 86.5 (#41/146)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 public-lane score: 68.1 (#71/146)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.3% | 71.5% | Granite 4.2 8B |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | 86.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | 78.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Apex Shortlist | Coming soon | 89.4% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Granite 4.2 8B or Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4?

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 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 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4?

The widest category gap is in instruction following, where the averages are 86.5 for Granite 4.2 8B and 68.1 for Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B 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 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 cover on BenchLM?

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 currently has 18 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 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b-nvfp4)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b-nvfp4)

## Explore More

- [Granite 4.2 8B profile](/models/granite-4-2-8b)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4 profile](/models/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b-nvfp4)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)