Dense vs. MoE Models: Active Parameters, Throughput, and When to Choose Each

<img width="768" height="432" src="https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-768x432.png" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; clear:both;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" srcset="https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-768x432.png 768w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-179x101.png 179w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-300x169.png 300w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-625x352.png 625w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-1536x864.png 1536w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-645x363.png 645w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-660x370.png 660w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-500x281.png 500w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-160x90.png 160w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-362x204.png 362w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-196x110.png 196w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-1024x576.png 1024w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-960x540.png 960w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8.webp 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" title="image2" />How can a 30B-parameter model activate only 3B parameters per token, and still use the capacity of the larger model? Nemotron 3.5 Lightning illustrates the...<img width="768" height="432" src="https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-768x432.png" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; clear:both;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-768x432.png 768w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-179x101.png 179w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-300x169.png 300w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-625x352.png 625w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-1536x864.png 1536w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-645x363.png 645w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-660x370.png 660w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-500x281.png 500w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-160x90.png 160w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-362x204.png 362w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-196x110.png 196w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-1024x576.png 1024w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8-960x540.png 960w, https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/image2-8.webp 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" title="image2" /><p>How can a 30B-parameter model activate only 3B parameters per token, and still use the capacity of the larger model? Nemotron 3.5 Lightning illustrates the answer: It uses a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture that selects only a subset of its parameters for each token. There are two dominant model architectures: Dense model and MoE. How a model organizes its parameters matters as much as…</p> <p><a href="https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/dense-vs-moe-models-active-parameters-throughput-and-when-to-choose-each/" rel="nofollow" data-wpel-link="internal" target="_self">Source</a></p>