Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Nemotron 3.5 Super VL by NVIDIA or Step 5 Preview by StepFun? 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
Step 5 Preview scores 17.2 points higher (43.7 vs 26.5) but costs 4.2× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $286; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Step 5 Preview when you need intelligence above 26.5, and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL when 26.5 is enough.
| Metric | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 26.5 | 43.7 | +64.9% Step 5 Preview is 64.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $286.07 | $1,190.26 | +316.1% Step 5 Preview is 4.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.37s | 12.08s | +89.6% Step 5 Preview is 89.6% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.23 / $0.57 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL: 64.9% more intelligence, 316.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 89.6% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Nemotron 3.5 Super VLStep 5 PreviewToday'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/nemotron-3-5-super-vl/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill