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Head-to-head comparison

R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra

R1 Distill Llama 70B (DeepSeek) and Nemotron 3 Ultra (NVIDIA) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 18 August 2026

As of 18 August 2026, Nemotron 3 Ultra holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#42 vs #192); R1 Distill Llama 70B is 4.5× cheaper per output token ($0.80/1M vs $3.60/1M); Nemotron 3 Ultra offers the longer context window (512K vs 8K tokens); and R1 Distill Llama 70B ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose R1 Distill Llama 70B if…

  • API cost matters — $0.80/1M output tokens against $3.60/1M, about 4.5× cheaper.
  • you want to self-host: R1 Distill Llama 70B ships open weights while Nemotron 3 Ultra is restricted license.

Choose Nemotron 3 Ultra if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #42 against #192 (52.9 vs 11.5 points).
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.60/1M against $0.80/1M.
  • you need the longer context window — 512K tokens against 8K.
  • you want provider choice — 4 listed API providers against 1.
  • Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index is your yardstick — 38.3 against 9.8.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Nemotron 3 Ultra was listed 4 June 2026, R1 Distill Llama 70B 23 January 2025.

R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of R1 Distill Llama 70B and Nemotron 3 Ultra
FieldR1 Distill Llama 70BDeepSeekNemotron 3 UltraNVIDIA
ModelCap Index position#192#42
Index score11.552.9
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$0.80$0.60
Output price / 1M tokens$0.80$3.60
Context window8K tokens512K tokens
Max output tokens8K203K
API providers listed14
Weight accessOpen weightsRestricted license
Input modalitiesTextText
First listed23 January 20254 June 2026
PublisherDeepSeekNVIDIA

Evidence: 1 public benchmark observation across 1 board · 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra

Public benchmark boards where R1 Distill Llama 70B or Nemotron 3 Ultra has a published result
BoardR1 Distill Llama 70BNemotron 3 UltraLeads
LMArena AgentLMArena—-14.6%-17.2%–-12.1%Only one result
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis9.8intelligence-index38.3intelligence-indexNemotron 3 Ultra

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra: common questions

Is R1 Distill Llama 70B better than Nemotron 3 Ultra?

Nemotron 3 Ultra ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 18 August 2026: #42 against #192. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it.

Is R1 Distill Llama 70B cheaper than Nemotron 3 Ultra?

R1 Distill Llama 70B is cheaper on output tokens: $0.80/1M against $3.60/1M. Input tokens are $0.80/1M for R1 Distill Llama 70B and $0.60/1M for Nemotron 3 Ultra. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens.

Which has the bigger context window, R1 Distill Llama 70B or Nemotron 3 Ultra?

Nemotron 3 Ultra has the larger context window: 512K tokens against 8K.

Which is better for coding, R1 Distill Llama 70B or Nemotron 3 Ultra?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are R1 Distill Llama 70B and Nemotron 3 Ultra open-weight models?

R1 Distill Llama 70B: Open weights. Nemotron 3 Ultra: Restricted license. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run R1 Distill Llama 70B and Nemotron 3 Ultra?

ModelCap currently lists 1 API provider for R1 Distill Llama 70B and 4 for Nemotron 3 Ultra, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Nemotron 3 Ultra comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 18 August 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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