Nemotron 3.5 Lightning: The Open-Source Barrage Continues

Nvidia has just released their next-generation open-source **Nemotron 3.5 Lightning** model, and today, we are going to test it.

## Model Specs & Overview Let's go over the specs: it's a **30B parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE)** model with **3B active parameters**, so you can run it on your computer pretty easily. It gets a 24 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, even the much smaller NVFP4 variant. This is quite low when compared to competitors, but intelligence really isn't what Nvidia is going for here—it's **speed**. You can access this model for free on OpenRouter or Nvidia NIM. Just as a heads-up, we're going to be using the AcceleratedLogic AI chat application as the frontend.

## Test 1: SVG Vector Generation Let's start on SVG generation. Here is what it made when asked: > *"Make a SVG of a photorealistic 3D glass sphere containing a fully detailed 3D origami crane. Use realistic gradients, stroke paths, drop shadows, and visual refraction/reflections inside the glass. In one, fully working html file"*

```html ```

**Evaluation:** This isn't exactly the best output, as it doesn't look like a crane at all, but it is working and definitely is a good effort.

## Test 2: Three.js Interactive 3D Globe Now, when asked: > *"Create a single self-contained HTML file featuring an interactive 3D procedural globe using Three.js via CDN. The globe must have a procedurally generated canvas texture for continents, a translucent atmospheric glow mesh, and an orbiting ring of light particles. Include mouse drag rotation, zoom controls, and a single UI slider overlay to control the globe's continuous rotation speed. Output only valid HTML with no external image assets or console errors."*

```html ```

**Evaluation:** It doesn't even work, so it's definitely a fail.

## Technical Analysis: Why the Code Failed Inspecting the raw generation reveals why Nemotron's 3D code crashed during execution: 1. **Missing Arithmetic Operators (`*`):** The model dropped multiplication symbols in mathematical loops (`(i / particleCount) Math.PI 2` and `orbitRadius Math.sin(polar)`), causing immediate `Uncaught SyntaxError` halts. 2. **Deprecated API Properties:** The code attempted to assign `THREE.RGBFormat`, which was deprecated and completely removed in Three.js `r160`. 3. **Incorrect Bounds Clamping:** The polar angle clamping in mouse movement used `Math.max` incorrectly across three arguments, breaking drag rotation. ## Final Verdict Overall, in our testing, it was a pretty good AI model, but not for complex coding. If you just need a light, fast orchestrator model, or something for general chat, it's great. **Overall Score: 7 / 10**