# Granite 4.2 8B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Granite 4.2 8B and Nemotron 3 Ultra across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

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

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 10
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Nemotron 3 Ultra 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 Ultra has the higher overall point estimate 46.99 to 33.4. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in knowledge, where the averages are 30.6 for Granite 4.2 8B and 50.3 for Nemotron 3 Ultra.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is SWE Multilingual in Coding, with scores of 30.8% and 67.7%.
- Nemotron 3 Ultra also has the larger context window at 1M.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | IBM | NVIDIA |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 128K | 1M |
| Overall Score | 33.4 | 46.99 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 14 | 25 |
| 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 Ultra public-lane score: 28 (Supported · #97/127)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 56.4% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| τ³-bench results | 58.1% | 70.9% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| BFCL v4 | 52.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| PinchBench | Coming soon | 90.0% | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | Coming soon | 44.4% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/ tools | Coming soon | 37.4% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | Coming soon | 50.9% | Coming soon |
| MazeBench | Coming soon | 0% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 17.2 (Estimated · #125/150)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 21.8 (Supported · #116/150)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 47.7% | 71.9% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| SWE-bench Pro | 19.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | 30.8% | 67.7% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 20.6% | 56.4% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 73.2% | 89.0% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| SciCode | 36.1% | 44.6% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | Coming soon | 86.0% | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | Coming soon | 69.0% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 56.8 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 70.3 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CritPt | Coming soon | 3.1% | Coming soon |
| LongBench v2 | Coming soon | 61.9% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 30.6 (Supported · #154/184)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 50.3 (Estimated · #81/184)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 64.1% | 87% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| MMLU-Pro | 74.0% | 86.8% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| GPQA-D | Coming soon | 87.0% | Coming soon |
| HLE | Coming soon | 26.7% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/o tools | Coming soon | 26.7% | Coming soon |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | Coming soon | 86.1% | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | Coming soon | 85.8% | Coming soon |

### Multilingual

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 89.2 (#7/17)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| MMLU-ProX | Coming soon | 83% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Nemotron 3 Ultra
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: 86.5 (#41/146)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 92.1 (#20/146)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 79.3% | 81.7% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Granite 4.2 8B public-lane score: Coming soon
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Ultra | 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 Ultra?

Nemotron 3 Ultra 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 Ultra?

The widest category gap is in knowledge, where the averages are 30.6 for Granite 4.2 8B and 50.3 for Nemotron 3 Ultra.

### 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 Ultra cover on BenchLM?

Nemotron 3 Ultra currently has 25 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 Ultra vs Granite 4.2 30B](/compare/granite-4-2-30b-vs-nemotron-3-ultra)
- [Granite 4.2 8B vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-granite-4-2-8b)
- [Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Granite 4.2 3B](/compare/granite-4-2-3b-vs-nemotron-3-ultra)

## Explore More

- [Granite 4.2 8B profile](/models/granite-4-2-8b)
- [Nemotron 3 Ultra profile](/models/nemotron-3-ultra)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)