# Granite 4.2 8B vs Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (slim)

> Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B scores 66.7 (B) to Granite 4.2 8B's 61 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Granite 4.2 8B's 61 (C), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. Granite 4.2 8B leads on reach and documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Granite 4.2 8B: C 61, rank #66 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granite-4-2-8b.min.md
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B: B 66.7, rank #15 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b.min.md
- Granite 4.2 8B, good for Agents that want a documented, signed, Apache 2.0 reasoning model with tool calling on a 16 GB machine Ahead on Reach, 95 against 75; Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 70.
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B, good for Agents on a 128 GB unified machine or Blackwell GPUs that want a long-context, tool-calling reasoning model with documented training data Ahead on Risk, 65 against 55; Agent interface, 90 against 85.

| Category | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 95 | 75 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 65 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 90 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 92 | 70 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Granite 4.2 8B | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | IBM | NVIDIA |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | NVIDIA Nemotron Open Model License |
| Last release | 2026-10-20 | 2026-03-11 |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Documentation and upkeep, Granite 4.2 8B +22: Granite 4.2 8B 92 (Model card 17, Intended use (best for), limitations (ethical considerations and limitations), architecture, parameters (8B), context length (128K native) and 12…); Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 70 (The model card earns 20, all seven items with limitations in the linked subcard.)
- Reach, Granite 4.2 8B +20: Granite 4.2 8B 95 (Memory 30, IBM's own 4-bit MLX build granite-4.2-8b-q4-mlx is 4.95 GB, and 4.95 GB × 1.2 = 5.9 GB, within 8 GB.); Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 75 (Memory earns 10, because the smallest 4-bit build, NVIDIA's 80.3 GB NVFP4, needs about 96 GB with the fifth added, which fits the reference machine but not 64 G…)
- Risk, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B +10: Granite 4.2 8B 55 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).); Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 65 (File safety earns 15, safetensors only but with 10 off because the documented serving commands pass trust-remote-code and the repository ships model and parser…)
- Agent interface, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B +5: Granite 4.2 8B 85 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository, with roles, tools, tool responses, the thinking switch and low effort.); Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 90 (The chat template earns 20, a Jinja file in the repository.)