DigitalOcean Premium AMD (1 GB) vs. Vultr High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and ran my world famous suite of benchmarking scripts. All instances were running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Tue, 02 Jun 2026 03:00:52 GMT | Sun, 31 May 2026 13:00:55 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-117-generic |
| MySQL Version | 8.0.45-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 | 8.0.45-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 |
| Redis Version | 7.0.15 | 7.0.15 |
| Location | New York, NY | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | $7.00 | $18.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 1 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 25 | 80 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 1 | 3 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-AMD | Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS, no TSX) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 1,996.25 | 3,791.98 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,992.49 | 7,583.95 |
| Events per Second | 769.79 | 1,552.05 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.59 | 0.62 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.3 | 0.64 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.42 | 4.61 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.57 | 0.69 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,782,592.86 | 7,875,668.83 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,670.50 | 7,691.08 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.2 | 0.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,249,396.08 | 7,729,812.11 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,126.36 | 7,548.64 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.59 | 0.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,730.28 | 4,671.85 |
| Writes per Second | 1,153.52 | 3,114.56 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,691.26 | 9,976.90 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 27.04 | 73.00 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 18.02 | 48.67 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.15 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.49 | 2.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.5 | 0.17 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,618.21 | 543.27 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,629.75 | 554.74 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,641.18 | 563.70 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,648.20 | 559.50 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,365.00 | 10,621.00 |
| Queries per second | 63,650.00 | 106,210.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.43 | 0.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.57 | 0.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.05 | 2.5 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.79 | 1.03 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,031.00 | 10,229.00 |
| Queries per second | 40,310.00 | 102,290.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.5 | 0.64 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.48 | 0.98 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.51 | 2.08 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.62 | 1.23 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,979.00 | 5,072.00 |
| Queries per second | 19,790.00 | 50,720.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 3.33 | 1.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.05 | 1.97 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 38.41 | 3.94 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.04 | 2.39 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,206.00 | 16,038.00 |
| Queries per second | 62,060.00 | 160,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.61 | 0.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.37 | 13.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.57 | 0.8 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,259,342.00 | 2,424,342.00 |
| Queries per second | 12,593,420.00 | 24,243,420.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 474.62 | 205.81 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 137,982.00 | 241,313.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,379,820.00 | 2,413,130.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.85 | 0.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.05 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,054.00 | 12,080.00 |
| Queries per second | 70,540.00 | 120,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.54 | 0.21 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.42 | 0.83 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.03 | 3.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.89 | 1.04 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,291.00 | 10,527.00 |
| Queries per second | 72,910.00 | 105,270.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.43 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.37 | 0.95 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.61 | 3.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.79 | 1.23 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,834.00 | 17,123.00 |
| Queries per second | 58,340.00 | 171,230.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.9 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.71 | 0.58 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 27.72 | 2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 0.78 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,219.00 | 16,979.00 |
| Queries per second | 62,190.00 | 169,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.81 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.61 | 0.59 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 21.32 | 4.13 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.3 | 0.8 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 43,774.00 | 156,424.00 |
| Queries per second | 437,740.00 | 1,564,240.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.23 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.4 | 4.87 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.44 | 0.07 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 39,401.10 | 88,652.48 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 37,411.15 | 89,605.73 |
| SET per Second | 39,682.54 | 90,171.33 |
| GET per Second | 39,354.59 | 90,579.71 |
| INCR per Second | 39,714.06 | 90,744.10 |
| LPUSH per Second | 39,714.06 | 90,497.73 |
| RPUSH per Second | 40,371.42 | 90,415.91 |
| LPOP per Second | 39,401.10 | 90,909.09 |
| RPOP per Second | 38,299.50 | 90,661.83 |
| SADD per Second | 38,008.36 | 90,252.70 |
| HSET per Second | 39,200.31 | 90,415.91 |
| SPOP per Second | 38,491.14 | 89,928.05 |
| ZADD per Second | 39,032.00 | 90,415.91 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 39,572.62 | 90,009.01 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 26,609.90 | 66,533.60 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 14,823.60 | 36,179.45 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 10,390.69 | 26,239.83 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 9,089.26 | 22,547.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 36,179.45 | 88,105.73 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.87 | 0.30 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.90 | 0.29 |
| SET | 0.87 | 0.29 |
| GET | 0.87 | 0.29 |
| INCR | 0.86 | 0.28 |
| LPUSH | 0.87 | 0.29 |
| RPUSH | 0.85 | 0.29 |
| LPOP | 0.88 | 0.28 |
| RPOP | 0.90 | 0.28 |
| SADD | 0.90 | 0.29 |
| HSET | 0.88 | 0.29 |
| SPOP | 0.89 | 0.29 |
| ZADD | 0.88 | 0.29 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.86 | 0.29 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.31 | 0.39 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 2.41 | 0.71 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 3.43 | 0.97 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 3.92 | 1.14 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.98 | 0.30 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Upon comparing the benchmark performance of the DigitalOcean Premium AMD (1 GB) instance and the Vultr High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) instance, it's evident that the Vultr instance outperforms in most metrics, particularly in CPU and memory operations where it shows significantly higher RPS (requests per second) rates across various Redis commands, higher throughput for file IO operations, and superior performance in MySQL benchmarks. While the DigitalOcean instance excels in certain specific metrics such as memory latency and thread fairness, it is generally outpaced by the Vultr instance in terms of raw performance metrics, which makes it a better choice for CPU-intensive and I/O-heavy workloads. Thus, if higher CPU capacity, memory, and overall throughput are priorities, the Vultr instance would be the better option, whereas the DigitalOcean instance might be preferred for scenarios requiring slightly lower but still robust performance at a lower monthly cost.
From the friendly human:
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