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

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Granite 4.2 8B and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B 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
- 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 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 has the higher overall point estimate 49.51 to 33.4. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in agentic, where the averages are 15.7 for Granite 4.2 8B and 44.2 for Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench 2.1 in Agentic, with scores of 20.6% and 66.7%.
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B 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 also has the larger context window at 1M.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | IBM | NVIDIA |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 128K | 1M |
| Overall Score | 33.4 | 49.51 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 14 | 19 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | Pricing unavailable / Pricing unavailable |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 15.7 (Estimated · #113/127)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B public-lane score: 44.2 (Estimated · #61/127)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 66.7% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B |
| τ³-bench results | 58.1% | 18.9% | Granite 4.2 8B |
| BFCL v4 | 52.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| τ²-bench Airline | Coming soon | 76.5% | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | Coming soon | 78% | 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 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 47.7% | 71.1% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B |
| SWE-bench Pro | 19.1% | 51.8% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B |
| SWE Multilingual | 30.8% | 67.7% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 73.2% | 88.2% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B |
| 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 public-lane score: 73 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CritPt | Coming soon | 10.9% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B public-lane score: 62 (Unranked · 5 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| BabyVision | Coming soon | 29.6% | Coming soon |
| MMLongBench-Doc | Coming soon | 62.8% | Coming soon |
| V* | Coming soon | 85.6% | Coming soon |
| MathVision | Coming soon | 78.2% | Coming soon |
| CharXiv | Coming soon | 80.8% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 30.6 (Supported · #154/184)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B public-lane score: 51.8 (Estimated · #73/184)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 64.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro | 74.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA-D | Coming soon | 89.5% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/o tools | Coming soon | 31.8% | Coming soon |
| HLE | Coming soon | 29.2% | 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 public-lane score: 66.6 (#72/146)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.3% | 70.9% | Granite 4.2 8B |

### Mathematics

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

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME 2025 | 86.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2025 | 78.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Apex Shortlist | Coming soon | 88.4% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

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

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B 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?

The widest category gap is in agentic, where the averages are 15.7 for Granite 4.2 8B and 44.2 for Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B.

### 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 cover on BenchLM?

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B currently has 19 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 vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b)
- [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 vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b)

## Explore More

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