# Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 vs Nemotron 3 Ultra

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and Nemotron 3 Ultra across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4-vs-nemotron-3-ultra
- Last updated: September 24, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 13
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.7

## Quick Verdict

Pick Nemotron 3 Ultra if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 only makes more sense when its price, context window, or workload-specific category wins matter more than the overall score.

## Summary

- Nemotron 3 Ultra leads overall 43.3 to 19.1.
- The clearest category separation is in knowledge, where the averages are 20.7 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and 45.9 for Nemotron 3 Ultra.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is τ³-bench results in Agentic, with scores of 9.5% and 70.9%.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | NVIDIA | NVIDIA |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Overall Score | 19.1 | 43.3 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 13 | 24 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | $0.00 / $0.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 7.3 (Estimated · #104/105)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 25.5 (Supported · #77/105)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 23.5% | 56.4% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| PinchBench | 83.4% | 90.0% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| BrowseComp | 36.8% | 44.4% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| τ³-bench results | 9.5% | 70.9% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| HLE w/ tools | Coming soon | 37.4% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | Coming soon | 50.9% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Directional only
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 11.4 (Estimated · #135/135)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 23.2 (Supported · #108/135)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 52.8% | 71.9% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| SWE Multilingual | 36.5% | 67.7% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 23.5% | 56.4% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| SciCode | 31.4% | 44.6% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | Coming soon | 89.0% | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | Coming soon | 86.0% | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | Coming soon | 69.0% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 55.9 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 49.8 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CritPt | Coming soon | 3.1% | Coming soon |
| LongBench v2 | Coming soon | 61.9% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 20.7 (Estimated · #154/158)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 45.9 (Estimated · #71/158)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 75.6% | 87% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| GPQA-D | 75.6% | 87.0% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| HLE w/o tools | 10.5% | 26.7% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| MMLU-Pro | 81.6% | 86.8% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
| HLE | 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
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: Coming soon
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 47.4 (#7/12)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| MMLU-ProX | Coming soon | 83% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Nemotron 3 Ultra
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 68.5 (#67/124)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra public-lane score: 88.1 (#26/124)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 72.9% | 81.7% | Nemotron 3 Ultra |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 or Nemotron 3 Ultra?

Nemotron 3 Ultra is ahead overall on BenchLM right now.

### Where is the biggest gap between Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and Nemotron 3 Ultra?

The widest category gap is in knowledge, where the averages are 20.7 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and 45.9 for Nemotron 3 Ultra.

### 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.

### How many benchmarks does Nemotron 3 Ultra cover on BenchLM?

Nemotron 3 Ultra currently has 24 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 vs GPT-6 Astra](/compare/gpt-6-astra-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4)
- [Nemotron 3 Ultra vs GPT-6 Astra](/compare/gpt-6-astra-vs-nemotron-3-ultra)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4)
- [Nemotron 3 Ultra vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-nemotron-3-ultra)

## Explore More

- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 profile](/models/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4)
- [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)