GLM 5.3 Prime vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
GLM 5.3 Prime took 55 min 49 s and $3.43 at list price, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning took 10 min 9 s and $0.012 at list price. GLM 5.3 Prime took 5.5× as long and cost 292× as much.
GLM 5.3 Prime
Z.ai · $8.80/M out
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
NVIDIA · $0.20/M out · free route · 399 HN pts
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.
Some of the machines we work on were built before any of us were born. Patchbay is a three-person repair studio in Rotterdam, and what we do is simple to describe: we keep vintage synthesizers playing. A Minimoog that sat in an attic for thirty years. A Juno-60 with keys that no longer speak. A modular system that hums where it should roar. Whatever comes through our door gets opened up, traced through, and brought back.
That means rebuilding power supplies, cleaning a thousand key contacts, chasing a fault across three boards until it turns out to be a single cracked solder joint. It means calibrating oscillators that have drifted for decades, and listening — really listening — until a filter sounds the way it did the day it left the factory.
We do this because these instruments still sound like nothing else, and because somewhere a player is waiting to hear one come back to life.
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
| GLM 5.3 Prime | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | NVIDIA |
| Made in | China | US |
| Released | 23 Sep 2026 | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $2.80 | free route (list $0.07/M) |
| Price out, per M tokens | $8.80 | free route (list $0.20/M) |
| Context | 1,000,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | — | 399 |
| Time for the six prompts | 55 min 49 s | 10 min 9 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $3.43 | $0.012 |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was cheaper: $3.41 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was faster: 45 min 40 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play. GLM 5.3 Prime's landing page was cut off at the output limit (131,072 tokens).





