Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Claude Sonnet 5.5 took 3 min 49 s and $0.34 at list price, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning took 10 min 9 s and $0.012 at list price. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning took 2.7× as long, and Claude Sonnet 5.5 cost 29× as much.
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Anthropic · $10.00/M out · 9 HN pts
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
NVIDIA · $0.20/M out · free route · 399 HN pts
Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has CLI runs here (Claude Code).
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is three people in a workshop in Rotterdam, trying to keep old synthesizers alive. We repair, restore and recalibrate the instruments that shaped electronic music: Moogs and Oberheims, Rolands and Sequential Circuits, the odd temperamental Soviet oddity that someone found in an attic.
Most of what lands on our benches has been silent for years. A crackling pot, a drifting oscillator, a power supply that gave up in 1994. Some come from working musicians who need their instrument back before the next tour. Others come from people who inherited a dusty box from a parent and want to hear what it sounds like.
We work slowly and by hand. We trace faults with a scope and a schematic, source or rebuild parts when originals are gone, and change as little as we can. Every synth leaves with a note describing exactly what we did, so the next person to open it knows where we have been.
Come by, bring your synth, and stay for coffee.
Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam devoted to the restoration and repair of vintage synthesizers. We believe analog gear holds a living voice, and our purpose is to safeguard that sound for musicians, collectors, and creators who value authenticity. With hands-on experience in circuitry, voltage calibration, and component preservation, we treat every console, drum machine, or modular voice with meticulous care. Rotterdam’s eclectic artistic community fuels our commitment to keeping analog heritage alive, bridging past technology with present music. Whether rescuing a neglected lab unit or reviving a cherished polysynth, we approach each instrument as a unique piece of musical history, ensuring it performs as intended for years ahead. We love helping artists reconnect with the warmth and character only vintage hardware can offer. Our workshop sits in the heart of the city, where dusty circuit boards meet fresh compositions, and every repaired synth becomes part of a new musical story.
Specs and numbers
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | NVIDIA |
| Made in | US | US |
| Released | 28 Sep 2026 | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $2.00 | free route (list $0.07/M) |
| Price out, per M tokens | $10.00 | free route (list $0.20/M) |
| Context | 1,000,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | 9 | 399 |
| Time for the six prompts | 3 min 49 s | 10 min 9 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.34 | $0.012 |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was cheaper: $0.33 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Claude Sonnet 5.5 was faster: 6 min 21 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Claude Sonnet 5.5's rebuild matched the screenshot at 94%; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Claude Sonnet 5.5's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was not in it.





