DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 vs Granite 4.2 30B

DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 38

Model card 8, the card and the DSpark card it names give architecture, parameters and context, with intended use, limitations, languages and cut-off missing. Training data 5, a general description in the report with no cut-off. Last change 10, a card edit on 1 August 2026, 93 days before 2 November, so past 90 and within 180; deepseek-recipe 0.2.0 (20 October) stays read as a library-wide release, not a change to this model's files. Responsiveness 0, DeepSeek answered none of the 61 discussions, the newest opened on 17 October. Version policy 10, the preview and DSpark copies keep their own repositories and the dated 0731 release says what it supersedes. File health 5, the files agree with each other, but reports of tool-call errors and looping and a pull request for a missing chat template wait without a reply from DeepSeek.

Granite 4.2 30B 87

Model card 17, Intended use (best for), limitations (ethical considerations and limitations), architecture, parameters (30B), context length (128K native) and 12 tested languages are on the card. Training data 20, IBM's disclosure file for the 30B lists the datasets used in pre-training and post-training as machine-readable metadata, and the card describes the three training stages. Last change 15, the last commit to the repository was on 4 September 2026, 67 days before this check. Responsiveness 20, Of the 4 discussions that aren't pull requests (28 August to 3 November 2026), 3 have a reply from an ibm-granite member. Version policy 5, Granite 4.1 30B stays in its own repository and 4.2 came out in new ones. File health 10, Config, template and card agree on the architecture, the 131,072-token context and the thinking switch. 17 + 20 + 15 + 20 + 5 + 10 = 87.

DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 70

Memory 5, because the smallest build of 4-bit or better from a runtime's own library is LM Studio's MXFP4 GGUF at 156.4 GB, which with a fifth added needs 187.7 GB, more than our 107.4 GB machine and within 256 GB. DeepSeek's own release, 166.9 GB, sits in the same band. Runtimes 25, the cap, from vLLM v0.32.0, SGLang v0.5.22, llama.cpp release b11771, Transformers 5.20.0 and LM Studio's library, with Ollama not counted since its library entry is retired with no models pushed. Builds 10, DeepSeek ships one build, the FP8 and FP4 release itself. Terms 15, MIT with nothing added. Download 10, not gated. Hosted 5, DeepSeek's API moved to V4.1 Flash, but five inference providers on Hugging Face serve this repository live (Together's mapping has gone since 21 October).

Granite 4.2 30B 90

Memory 25, IBM's own 4-bit MLX build granite-4.2-30b-q4-mlx is 16.47 GB, and 16.47 GB × 1.2 = 19.8 GB, which fits 24 GB but not 16 GB. Its Q4_0 GGUF is 16.58 GB and Ollama's library build granite4.2:30b 18 GB, the same band. Runtimes 25, Released versions run the granite architecture in llama.cpp (granite, b12242), vLLM (GraniteForCausalLM in the v0.33.0 registry), SGLang (granite.py at v0.5.23), Transformers (v5.22.2) and Ollama (its own granite4.2 library entry, 30b tag). Builds 15, IBM publishes FP8, MXFP4 and NVFP4 safetensors builds, a GGUF repository with Q4_0 to Q8_0 and BF16 files, and 4-bit, 8-bit and BF16 MLX builds, so quantised builds at two precisions or more. Terms 15, Apache 2.0, an OSI-approved licence, with no use policy or other terms added on the card. Download 10, the Hub API reports gated false for the BF16, FP8, MXFP4, NVFP4, GGUF and MLX repositories, so the files download with no account and nothing to accept. Hosted 0, Hugging Face maps one inference provider (DeepInfra, live), short of the two the line needs. 25 + 25 + 15 + 15 + 10 + 0 = 90.

DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 75

Chat template 10, there is no Jinja template and the format is given as Python to run. Tool-calling format 10, DeepSeek documents how tools are declared and returned and ships its own parser, but only vLLM's recipe names a runtime parser, so the 25 line isn't met. Trained tool calling 20, several invoke elements in one call block. Structured output 15, DeepSeek's deepseek-recipe library documents JSON Schema response formats for V4 prompts. Reasoning control 10, chat mode with no thinking and three effort levels in thinking mode, with reasoning returned as reasoning_content. Context 10, 1M tokens trained.

Granite 4.2 30B 85

Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository, with roles, tools, tool responses, the thinking switch and low effort. Tool-calling format 25, the card has tool-calling sections for vLLM and SGLang, declares tools with OpenAI's function schema and names the parser to use, qwen3_coder, which both runtimes ship in the released versions read. Trained tool calling 20, the template loops over every entry in an assistant turn's tool_calls, so it renders several calls in one turn, and the card names tool calling and agentic workflows as what it's best for. Structured output 0, the card doesn't document JSON or JSON Schema output or how to ask for it. Reasoning control 10, the card documents thinking on by default, non-thinking and low-effort modes per request through the template (enable_thinking and low_effort), with the reasoning returned apart from the answer. Context 10, 131,072 tokens natively per the card and config.json. 20 + 25 + 20 + 0 + 10 + 10 = 85.

DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 50

File safety 15, safetensors only, less 10 because prompts are built by running DeepSeek's encoding_dsv4.py from the repository and the card's serving commands pass --trust-remote-code. Provenance 15, the deepseek-ai organisation and a SHA-256 on every shard. Safety evaluation 0, none published. Agent guidance 0, the encoding README's notes about the parser and the reserved developer role are usage notes, read alike for all three DeepSeek listings. Licence risk 15, MIT with no deductions. Security programme 5, for the security@deepseek.com reporting address in DeepSeek's site footer, read as for DeepSeek-V3.2, with no security.txt and no public advisories.

Granite 4.2 30B 55

File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25). Provenance 15, the files sit in the ibm-granite organisation, which IBM's Granite docs and the GitHub README link to (10). Safety evaluation 0, no safety results on the card. Agent guidance 5, General cautions. Licence risk 15, Apache 2.0 has no use policy, field-of-use limit, threshold or change clause, and the card's licence link resolves. Security programme 5, www.ibm.com/.well-known/security.txt names IBM PSIRT, read for the 3B listing on 4 November 2026 (5). 15 + 15 + 0 + 5 + 15 + 5 = 55.