DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) scores 11.3 points higher (24.2 vs 12.9) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($149 vs $92.8; both mid-range class). Pick DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Nemotron 3.5 Lightning.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.2 | 12.9 | −46.7% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 46.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $149.48 | $92.76 | −37.9% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 37.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 103.74s | 8.98s | −91.3% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 91.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max): 46.7% less intelligence, 37.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 91.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 34.60 for $66.8.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max)Nemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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