# Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 vs Sage-A1.5

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and Sage-A1.5 across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4-vs-sage-a1-5
- Last updated: October 20, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 5
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Sage-A1.5 leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Sage-A1.5 has the higher overall point estimate 62.95 to 25.23. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in agentic, where the averages are 15.4 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and 57.7 for Sage-A1.5.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is BrowseComp in Agentic, with scores of 36.8% and 81.7%.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 also has the larger context window at 1M.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Sage-A1.5 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | NVIDIA | InternScience |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 262K |
| Overall Score | 25.23 | 62.95 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 13 | 12 |
| 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: 15.4 (Estimated · #118/132)
- Sage-A1.5 public-lane score: 57.7 (Estimated · #36/132)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Sage-A1.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 23.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| PinchBench | 83.4% | 90.0% | Sage-A1.5 |
| BrowseComp | 36.8% | 81.7% | Sage-A1.5 |
| τ³-bench results | 9.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GAIA | Coming soon | 95.1% | Coming soon |
| MLE-Bench Lite | Coming soon | 65.2% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/ tools | Coming soon | 55.1% | Coming soon |
| VITA-Bench | Coming soon | 45.4% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Directional only
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 15 (Estimated · #136/153)
- Sage-A1.5 public-lane score: 54 (Estimated · #34/153)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Sage-A1.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 52.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | 36.5% | 72.7% | Sage-A1.5 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 23.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SciCode | 31.4% | 44.3% | Sage-A1.5 |
| SWE-bench Pro | Coming soon | 61.2% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 58.8 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)
- Sage-A1.5 public-lane score: 80.6 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Sage-A1.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CritPt | Coming soon | 20.0% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Not comparable
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 29 (Estimated · #161/187)
- Sage-A1.5 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Sage-A1.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 75.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA-D | 75.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| HLE w/o tools | 10.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro | 81.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierScience Research | Coming soon | 48.3% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Sage-A1.5
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 71.4 (#74/152)
- Sage-A1.5 public-lane score: 91.9 (#22/152)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Sage-A1.5 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 72.9% | 81.6% | Sage-A1.5 |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 or Sage-A1.5?

Sage-A1.5 has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and Sage-A1.5?

The widest category gap is in agentic, where the averages are 15.4 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and 57.7 for Sage-A1.5.

### 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 Sage-A1.5 cover on BenchLM?

Sage-A1.5 currently has 12 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 vs Sage-A1.5-F16-GGUF](/compare/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4-vs-sage-a1-5-f16-gguf)
- [Sage-A1.5 vs Sage-A1.5-F16-GGUF](/compare/sage-a1-5-vs-sage-a1-5-f16-gguf)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 vs Sage-A1.5-FP8](/compare/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4-vs-sage-a1-5-fp8)
- [Sage-A1.5 vs Sage-A1.5-FP8](/compare/sage-a1-5-vs-sage-a1-5-fp8)

## Explore More

- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 profile](/models/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4)
- [Sage-A1.5 profile](/models/sage-a1-5)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)