NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 vs Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B leads llmrun Score 121.5 to 95.8; only Qwen3.8 27B fits 24 GB (Q4_K_M); NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 needs 34.5 GB even at its smallest quant.
Model A · NVIDIA
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16123.6B · 13B active · 256K context · Other · Mar 2026
Model B · Alibaba
Qwen3.8 27B27.8B · 256K context · Apache 2.0 · Aug 2026
Choose NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 if you want…
Also does chat
Qwen3.8 27B doesn't list it
Choose Qwen3.8 27B if you want…
Higher llmrun Score
121.5 vs 95.8
Stronger at coding
112.1 vs 95.6
Stronger at science
112.0 vs 97.5
Ahead on the benchmarks
3 of 3 shared boards
Fits a 12 GB GPU
IQ3_XXS · 12 GB; NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 needs 34.5 GB at its smallest quant
Fits a Mac 32 GB
Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB; NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 needs 34.5 GB at its smallest quant
On your hardware
Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.
8 GB
RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 34.5 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 8.8 GB
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 34.5 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
IQ3_XXS · ~20 tok/s
12 GB · up to 16Kfits
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 34.5 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
Q3_K_L · ~19 tok/s
15.4 GB · up to 16Kfits
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 34.5 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~38 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 64Kfits
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 34.5 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~67 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
IQ2_M · ~73 tok/s
42.2 GB · up to 256K
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~29 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 256Kmore headroom
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 34.5 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~5 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 128Kfits
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
IQ3_M · ~30 tok/s
56.1 GB · up to 256K
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 256Kmore headroom
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Q4_K_M · ~26 tok/s
74.7 GB · up to 256Kfaster
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 256K
Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).
Overall
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Qwen3.8 27B
Coding
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Qwen3.8 27B
Math
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
no data
Qwen3.8 27B
Science
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Qwen3.8 27B
Reasoning
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
no data
Qwen3.8 27B
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 · #60 of 92 open models · #29 of 54 that fit ≤96 GB
Qwen3.8 27B · #10 of 92 open models · #1 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Benchmarks
3 shared boards: NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 leads 0, Qwen3.8 27B leads 3 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
1360.3#68/186 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Qwen3.8 27B
1438.1#22/186 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
36.0%#38/65 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2026
Qwen3.8 27B
46.6%#19/65 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
3.1%#23/65 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Mar 2026
Qwen3.8 27B
5.4%#15/65 open
Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026
13 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
Only Qwen3.8 27B (11)
- LiveBench Coding75.7
- LiveBench Reasoning80.0
- LMArena WebDev1592.8
- LiveBench Math86.2
- ARC-AGI-242.4%
- ARC-AGI87.5%
- DTBench88.0%
- LMCA41.4%
- APEX-Agents47.5%
- Surface Evolver Bench45.0%
- ProofBench16.0%
VRAM by quantization
Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.
Q2_K
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
53.0 GB54.8 GB file
32K 53.2 GB · 128K 54.3 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
12.6 GB10.8 GB file
32K 13.9 GB · 128K 19.3 GB
Q3_K_S
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
54.6 GB61.7 GB file
32K 54.7 GB · 128K 55.9 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
12.9 GB12.7 GB file
32K 14.2 GB · 128K 19.6 GB
Q3_K_M
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
60.7 GB61.7 GB file
32K 60.9 GB · 128K 62.0 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
14.3 GB13.4 GB file
32K 15.6 GB · 128K 21.0 GB
Q4_0
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
62.3 GB71.0 GB file
32K 62.5 GB · 128K 63.6 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
14.6 GB~13.9 GB file
32K 16.0 GB · 128K 21.4 GB
Q4_K_M
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
74.7 GB82.5 GB file
32K 74.8 GB · 128K 75.9 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
17.4 GB16.5 GB file
32K 18.8 GB · 128K 24.1 GB
Q5_K_M
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
88.6 GB107.3 GB file
32K 88.7 GB · 128K 89.9 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
20.5 GB19.8 GB file
32K 21.9 GB · 128K 27.3 GB
Q6_K
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
102 GB114.8 GB file
32K 103 GB · 128K 104 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
23.7 GB22.0 GB file
32K 25.0 GB · 128K 30.4 GB
Q8_0
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
124 GB128.5 GB file
32K 124 GB · 128K 125 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
28.5 GB29.0 GB file
32K 29.9 GB · 128K 35.2 GB
17 more quants
IQ2_XXS
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
34.5 GB~34.0 GB file
32K 34.7 GB · 128K 35.8 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
8.4 GB7.3 GB file
32K 9.7 GB · 128K 15.1 GB
IQ2_XS
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
37.6 GB52.0 GB file
32K 37.8 GB · 128K 38.9 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
9.1 GB9.1 GB file
32K 10.4 GB · 128K 15.8 GB
IQ2_S
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
39.1 GB52.1 GB file
32K 39.3 GB · 128K 40.4 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
9.4 GB8.4 GB file
32K 10.8 GB · 128K 16.1 GB
IQ2_M
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
42.2 GB52.7 GB file
32K 42.4 GB · 128K 43.5 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
10.1 GB10.5 GB file
32K 11.5 GB · 128K 16.8 GB
IQ3_XXS
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
48.4 GB56.6 GB file
32K 48.6 GB · 128K 49.7 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
11.5 GB10.9 GB file
32K 12.9 GB · 128K 18.2 GB
IQ3_XS
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
51.5 GB64.5 GB file
32K 51.7 GB · 128K 52.8 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
12.2 GB10.4 GB file
32K 13.6 GB · 128K 18.9 GB
IQ3_S
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
53.0 GB56.6 GB file
32K 53.2 GB · 128K 54.3 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
12.6 GB12.0 GB file
32K 13.9 GB · 128K 19.3 GB
IQ3_M
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
56.1 GB66.3 GB file
32K 56.3 GB · 128K 57.4 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
13.3 GB14.9 GB file
32K 14.6 GB · 128K 20.0 GB
Q3_K_L
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
63.8 GB66.4 GB file
32K 64.0 GB · 128K 65.1 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
15.0 GB14.1 GB file
32K 16.3 GB · 128K 21.7 GB
IQ4_XS
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
66.9 GB64.5 GB file
32K 67.1 GB · 128K 68.2 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
15.7 GB14.3 GB file
32K 17.0 GB · 128K 22.4 GB
IQ4_NL
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
70.0 GB64.5 GB file
32K 70.2 GB · 128K 71.3 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
16.4 GB17.4 GB file
32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB
Q4_1
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
70.0 GB76.6 GB file
32K 70.2 GB · 128K 71.3 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
16.4 GB17.5 GB file
32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB
Q4_K_S
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
70.0 GB79.0 GB file
32K 70.2 GB · 128K 71.3 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
16.4 GB15.4 GB file
32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB
Q4_K_L
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
76.2 GB87.4 GB file
32K 76.4 GB · 128K 77.5 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
17.8 GB18.8 GB file
32K 19.1 GB · 128K 24.5 GB
Q5_K_S
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
85.5 GB89.7 GB file
32K 85.7 GB · 128K 86.8 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
19.9 GB18.7 GB file
32K 21.2 GB · 128K 26.6 GB
Q5_K_L
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
90.1 GB96.9 GB file
32K 90.3 GB · 128K 91.4 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
20.9 GB21.5 GB file
32K 22.2 GB · 128K 27.6 GB
BF16
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
248 GB241.5 GB file
32K 248 GB · 128K 249 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
56.3 GB54.7 GB file
32K 57.7 GB · 128K 63.0 GB
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Super-120B-A12B-GGUF:Q4_K_MQwen3.8 27B
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | NVIDIA | Alibaba |
| Parameters | 123.6B | 27.8B |
| Active parameters | 13B per token | — |
| Architecture | NemotronHForCausalLM | Qwen3_5ForConditionalGeneration |
| Context | 256K tokens | 256K tokens |
| Modalities | Chat, Function-calling | Vision, Function-calling |
| License | Other | Apache 2.0 |
| Released | Mar 2026 | Aug 2026 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 or Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3.8 27B leads llmrun Score 121.5 to 95.8; only Qwen3.8 27B fits 24 GB (Q4_K_M); NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 needs 34.5 GB even at its smallest quant. Choose NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 for also does chat; choose Qwen3.8 27B for higher llmrun Score and stronger at coding.
Which needs less VRAM, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 or Qwen3.8 27B?
At Q4_K_M, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 requires 74.7 GB while Qwen3.8 27B needs 17.4 GB, making Qwen3.8 27B the easier model to run on your local setup.
Can I run NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 or Qwen3.8 27B on a 16 GB GPU?
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 does not fit (smallest quant needs 34.5 GB); Qwen3.8 27B fits at Q3_K_L.
Which has a longer context window, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 or Qwen3.8 27B?
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B BF16 supports 262,144 tokens and Qwen3.8 27B supports 262,144 tokens.