# Analyzing performance of Retrieval Augmented Generation models for Question Answering Tasks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20419 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.20419/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in RAG pipeline design and evaluation, one of 15 directions in Retrieval-augmented generation.
- Builds on 19 of its 26 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Oct 2026.

## Placed in

- Retrieval-augmented generation / [RAG pipeline design and evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/rag/rag-pipeline-design-and-evaluation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [Qwen3 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.09388/) (2025)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10997/) (2023)
- [From Local to Global: A Graph RAG Approach to Query-Focused Summarization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16130/) (2024)
- [gpt-oss-120b & gpt-oss-20b Model Card](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.10925/) (2025)
- [Gemma: Open Models Based on Gemini Research and Technology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.08295/) (2024)
- [Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.06196/) (2024)
- [Multilingual E5 Text Embeddings: A Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05672/) (2024)
- [CRAG -- Comprehensive RAG Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04744/) (2024)
- [HalluLens: LLM Hallucination Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.17550/) (2025)
- [A Survey on Knowledge-Oriented Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10677/) (2025)
- [Collab-RAG: Boosting Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Complex Question Answering via White-Box and Black-Box LLM Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.04915/) (2025)
- [A Systematic Literature Review of Retrieval-Augmented Generation: Techniques, Metrics, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.06401/) (2025)
- [EraRAG: Efficient and Incremental Retrieval Augmented Generation for Growing Corpora](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.20963/) (2025)
- [ARAGOG: Advanced RAG Output Grading](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01037/) (2024)
- [Too Late to Train, Too Early To Use? A Study on Necessity and Viability of Low-Resource Bengali LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.00416/) (2024)
- [Evaluating the Robustness of Retrieval-Augmented Generation to Adversarial Evidence in the Health Domain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.03787/) (2025)
- [DO-RAG: A Domain-Specific QA Framework Using Knowledge Graph-Enhanced Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17058/) (2025)
- [From Facts to Folklore: Evaluating Large Language Models on Bengali Cultural Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.20043/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) models have become almost a cornerstone of open-domain question answering tasks; in which the quality of answers generated in the process, greatly relies on the effectiveness of retrieval mechanisms. In the realm of LLM, the last two years have seen tremendous progress in RAG architectures, with many models reporting to have improved performance through various design innovations. The cultural question and answering systems of South Asia, in particular, present a specific challenge since the region is home to the vast number of languages and traditions, which are closely interrelated. Along with these deeply intertwined historical narratives increase the need for culturally grounded and context-aware interpretation. Despite major architectural advances in LLMs, claiming significant improvements, challenges remain when answering these region specific questions in native languages. In this study, we aim to extract high-performing factors to guide the development of optimized hybrid RAG systems. We further explore whether the integration of RAG changes performance differently for culturally grounded and non-cultural questions in a South Asian multilingual setup, and whether RAG produces a higher overall percentage of correct answers than contexted answering. We also examine how LLM performance changes when RAG methods are integrated into the question-answering pipeline in comparison with non-contexted and contexted answering and, evaluate whether the introduction of RAG benefits popular or non-popular culturally grounded questions more. Not only does our work evaluate the current methods but also carves a path for future designs of more accurate and efficient question-answering pipelines.