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DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) leads the LLM Stats Score 29.9 to -3.3.

DeepSeek · NVIDIA · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) leads the overall LLM Stats Score 29.9 to -3.3, ranking #142 overall.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

  • you are already invested in the DeepSeek ecosystem

Choose Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

  • overall performance matters — it scores 29.9 and ranks #142 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
DeepSeek
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)
NVIDIA
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
-3.3
#366
29.9
#142
Reasoning
-2.9
#357
29.2
#143
Coding
-4.7
#282
14.8
#151
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 1
1 of 1
Input price
— / M
— / M
Output price
— / M
— / M
Context window
—
—

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)
Math
5.3#283
23.6#135
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

4 reported for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B · 10 for Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

1 shared

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Oct 19 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

72.2B diff

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) has 72.2B more parameters than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B, making it 4057.3% larger.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
1.8Bparameters
NVIDIA
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)
74.0Bparameters
1.8B
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
74.0B
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) supports multimodal inputs, whereas DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B does not.

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) uses OpenMDW License v1.1.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

MIT

Open weights

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

OpenMDW License v1.1

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) was released on 2026-10-15.

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) is 21 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

Jan 20, 2025

1.7 years ago

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

Oct 15, 2026

2 days ago

1.7yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-05-01, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)'s training data extends to 2026-05-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B

—

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)

May 2026

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
✓ Preferred
Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB).

Which is better, DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B or Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)?

Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) leads the LLM Stats Score 29.9 to -3.3. DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is made by DeepSeek and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) is made by NVIDIA. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B compare to Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) in benchmarks?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B scores MATH-500: 83.9%, AIME 2024: 52.7%, GPQA: 33.8%, LiveCodeBench: 16.9%. Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) scores PinchBench: 87.8%, GPQA: 86.4%, BrowseComp: 66.8%, AA-LCR: 64.1%, MCP Atlas: 52.2%.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (-3.3 vs 29.9), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MIT vs OpenMDW License v1.1). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB)?

DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is developed by DeepSeek and Nemotron 3.5 Bolt (74B A9B 24GB) is developed by NVIDIA.

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