Muse Spark 1.1 (Xhigh) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Muse Spark 1.1 (Xhigh) by Meta or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Muse Spark 1.1 (Xhigh) scores 20.8 points higher (33.7 vs 12.9) but costs 19× as much to run the benchmark ($1737 vs $92.8; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Muse Spark 1.1 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 12.9, and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when 12.9 is enough.
| Metric | Muse Spark 1.1 (Xhigh) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.7 | 12.9 | −61.7% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 61.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,737.18 | $92.76 | −94.7% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 94.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 21.12s | 8.97s | −57.5% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 57.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.25 / $4.25 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Muse Spark 1.1 (Xhigh): 61.7% less intelligence, 94.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 57.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Muse Spark 1.1 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 34.60 for $66.8.
Muse Spark 1.1 (Xhigh)Nemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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