Qwen3.5 9B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B
Neither has a clear lead on the index. Qwen3.5 9B is the smaller download at 5.7 GB, so it runs on cheaper hardware.
| Qwen3.5 9B | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B-A3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence index | 14 | 14 |
| Class | Below every hosted tier | Below every hosted tier |
| Weights | 5.7 GB | 25 GB |
| Quantisation | Q4_K_M | Q4_K_M |
| Parameters | 9.7B | 31.6B (3B active) |
| Max context | 256k | 256k |
| API price per 1M | $0.08 in / $0.13 out | $0.08 in / $0.2 out |
| Licence | Apache 2.0 | OpenMDW 1.1 |
| Cheapest machine that runs it | Mac mini M6, 16GB $899 | Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 64GB $1,959 |
| Summarising | not rated | not rated |
| Translation | not rated | not rated |
| Everyday coding | not rated | not rated |
| Reasoning & maths | not rated | not rated |
| Agentic work | not rated | not rated |
Ratings are coarse on purpose. Speeds and pay-back depend on the machine — open either model's page for the full list, or see both against the frontier. Context is 32k throughout.