Hy3 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Hy3 by Tencent 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
Hy3 scores 12.4 points higher (25.3 vs 12.9) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($150 vs $92.8; both mid-range class). Pick Hy3 when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Nemotron 3.5 Lightning.
| Metric | Hy3 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.3 | 12.9 | −49.0% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 49.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $149.61 | $92.76 | −38.0% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 38.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 33.13s | 9.09s | −72.6% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 72.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.14 / $0.56 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Hy3: 49.0% less intelligence, 38.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 72.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Hy3 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.
Hy3Nemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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