Granite 4.2 8B vs Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 8B by IBM or Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) scores 1.7 points higher (12.8 vs 11.1) but costs 25× as much to run the benchmark ($1319 vs $53.1; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 11.1, and Granite 4.2 8B when 11.1 is enough.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.1 | 12.8 | +15.3% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 15.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $53.07 | $1,318.62 | +2384.7% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 25× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 63.71s | 16.78s | −73.7% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 73.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.06 / $0.25 | $0.30 / $0.90 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) vs Granite 4.2 8B: 15.3% more intelligence, 2384.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 73.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Granite 4.2 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (High) scores 32.90 for $47.9.
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Granite 4.2 8BNemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-8b/nvidia-nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-8b/nvidia-nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill