# Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 vs Spark-X2.6-4B

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and Spark-X2.6-4B across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4-vs-spark-x2-6-4b
- Last updated: October 20, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 9
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Spark-X2.6-4B leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Spark-X2.6-4B has the higher overall point estimate 40.14 to 25.55. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in agentic, where the averages are 15.8 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and 33 for Spark-X2.6-4B.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is SWE Multilingual in Coding, with scores of 36.5% and 64.7%.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Spark-X2.6-4B |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | NVIDIA | SparkLLM |
| Type | Open Weight | Open Weight |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Overall Score | 25.55 | 40.14 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 13 | 20 |
| 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: 15.8 (Estimated · #117/131)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 33 (Estimated · #89/131)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 23.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| PinchBench | 83.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | 36.8% | 53.1% | Spark-X2.6-4B |
| τ³-bench results | 9.5% | 34.7% | Spark-X2.6-4B |
| BFCL v4 | Coming soon | 71.8% | Coming soon |
| τ²-bench results | Coming soon | 86.9% | Coming soon |
| MCP Atlas | Coming soon | 62.4% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/ tools | Coming soon | 36.9% | Coming soon |
| Claw-Eval | Coming soon | 69.9% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Directional only
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 15.3 (Estimated · #134/152)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 30.6 (Estimated · #95/152)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SWE-bench Verified | 52.8% | 62.8% | Spark-X2.6-4B |
| SWE Multilingual | 36.5% | 64.7% | Spark-X2.6-4B |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 23.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SciCode | 31.4% | 36.8% | Spark-X2.6-4B |
| SWE-bench Pro | Coming soon | 54.3% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 58.8 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 48.8 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| LongBench v2 | Coming soon | 53.3% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Directional only
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 29.2 (Estimated · #160/187)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 43 (Estimated · #109/187)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 75.6% | 69.9% | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 |
| GPQA-D | 75.6% | 77.1% | Spark-X2.6-4B |
| HLE w/o tools | 10.5% | 17.9% | Spark-X2.6-4B |
| MMLU-Pro | 81.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Spark-X2.6-4B
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: 71.4 (#72/149)
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 78.2 (#62/149)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 72.9% | 75.8% | Spark-X2.6-4B |
| IFEval | Coming soon | 93.6% | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 public-lane score: Coming soon
- Spark-X2.6-4B public-lane score: 76.4 (Unranked · 3 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 | Spark-X2.6-4B | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| AIME26 | Coming soon | 91.2% | Coming soon |
| HMMT Feb 2026 | Coming soon | 81.3% | Coming soon |
| IMOAnswerBench | Coming soon | 75.2% | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 or Spark-X2.6-4B?

Spark-X2.6-4B 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 Spark-X2.6-4B?

The widest category gap is in agentic, where the averages are 15.8 for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 and 33 for Spark-X2.6-4B.

### 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 Spark-X2.6-4B cover on BenchLM?

Spark-X2.6-4B currently has 20 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [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)
- [Spark-X2.6-4B vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-spark-x2-6-4b)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 vs GPT-6.1 Sol](/compare/gpt-6-1-sol-vs-nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4)
- [Spark-X2.6-4B vs GPT-6.1 Sol](/compare/gpt-6-1-sol-vs-spark-x2-6-4b)

## Explore More

- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B NVFP4 profile](/models/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b-nvfp4)
- [Spark-X2.6-4B profile](/models/spark-x2-6-4b)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)