# MiniMax M3 vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for MiniMax M3 and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/minimax-m3-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b
- Last updated: October 15, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 4
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

MiniMax M3 leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- MiniMax M3 has the higher overall point estimate 54.95 to 49.51. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in instruction following, where the averages are 93.8 for MiniMax M3 and 66.6 for Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is SWE-bench Verified in Coding, with scores of 80.5% and 71.1%.
- 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.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | MiniMax M3 | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | MiniMax | NVIDIA |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Non-Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Overall Score | 54.95 | 49.51 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 28 | 19 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.30 / $1.20 | Pricing unavailable / Pricing unavailable |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 39.5 (Supported · #68/127)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B public-lane score: 44.2 (Estimated · #61/127)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 66.0% | 66.7% | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B |
| BrowseComp | 83.5% | 78% | MiniMax M3 |
| OSWorld-Verified | 70.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MCP Atlas | 74.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Claw-Eval | 74.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BankerToolBench | 76.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ResearchClawBench | 19.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | 53.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MazeBench | 0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| τ²-bench Airline | Coming soon | 76.5% | Coming soon |
| τ³-bench results | Coming soon | 18.9% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 36.4 (Supported · #74/150)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 80.5% | 71.1% | MiniMax M3 |
| SWE-bench Pro | 59% | 51.8% | MiniMax M3 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 66.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| NL2Repo | 42.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| VIBE V2 | 50.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SVG-Bench | 63.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| KernelBench Hard | 28.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OpenHarmony Bench | 48.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | 82.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | 75.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | Coming soon | 88.2% | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | Coming soon | 67.7% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 82.9 (#5/28)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B public-lane score: 73 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CritPt | Coming soon | 10.9% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 61.5 (#43/54)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B public-lane score: 62 (Unranked · 5 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| OfficeQA Pro | 45.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OmniDocBench 1.5 | 91.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMMU-Pro | 78.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| VideoMMMU | 84.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Video-MME (with subtitle) | 85.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| 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
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 49.6 (Supported · #82/184)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B public-lane score: 51.8 (Estimated · #73/184)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | 92.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | 84.2% | 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: Directional only
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: 93.8 (#5/146)
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B public-lane score: 66.6 (#72/146)

| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | Coming soon | 70.9% | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- MiniMax M3 public-lane score: Coming soon
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | MiniMax M3 | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| USAMO 2026 | 85.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Apex Shortlist | Coming soon | 88.4% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, MiniMax M3 or Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B?

MiniMax M3 has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between MiniMax M3 and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B?

The widest category gap is in instruction following, where the averages are 93.8 for MiniMax M3 and 66.6 for Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B.

### How many benchmarks does MiniMax M3 cover on BenchLM?

MiniMax M3 currently has 28 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

- [MiniMax M3 vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4](/compare/minimax-m3-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b-nvfp4)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B NVFP4](/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b-nvfp4)
- [MiniMax M3 vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-minimax-m3)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B A12B vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b)

## Explore More

- [MiniMax M3 profile](/models/minimax-m3)
- [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)