DigitalOcean Premium AMD (2 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Welcome to another round of the VPS Showdown. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and did some benchmarking. All instances were running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sun, 31 May 2026 11:00:52 GMT | Sun, 31 May 2026 20:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-71-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 | New York, NY |
| Monthly Price | $14.00 | $56.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 50 | 160 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 5 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-AMD | DO-Premium-AMD |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 1,996.25 | 1,996.25 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,992.50 | 3,992.50 |
| Events per Second | 765.55 | 1,535.42 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.6 | 0.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.3 | 0.65 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.73 | 0.89 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.61 | 0.69 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 2,419,079.35 | 4,867,578.39 |
| Mebibytes per second | 2,362.38 | 4,753.49 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.57 | 0.19 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,589,052.29 | 4,347,879.44 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,481.50 | 4,245.98 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.42 | 0.56 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,810.43 | 2,384.51 |
| Writes per Second | 1,206.96 | 1,589.67 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,873.45 | 5,095.64 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 28.29 | 37.26 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 18.86 | 24.84 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.14 | 0.11 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.03 | 9.42 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.53 | 0.58 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,793.49 | 325.10 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,809.27 | 435.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,821.41 | 487.90 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,836.24 | 484.44 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,304.00 | 5,392.00 |
| Queries per second | 63,040.00 | 53,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.4 | 1.37 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.58 | 1.85 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.12 | 3 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.89 | 2.35 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,856.00 | 3,296.00 |
| Queries per second | 38,560.00 | 32,960.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.5 | 1.47 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.59 | 3.03 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.82 | 19.45 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.89 | 4.41 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,905.00 | 1,930.00 |
| Queries per second | 19,050.00 | 19,300.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 3.41 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.25 | 5.18 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.57 | 26.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.17 | 6.55 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,167.00 | 4,756.00 |
| Queries per second | 61,670.00 | 47,560.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.84 | 1.08 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.62 | 2.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.98 | 40.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.57 | 3.25 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,171,967.00 | 1,434,092.00 |
| Queries per second | 11,719,670.00 | 14,340,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 467.34 | 418.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 138,173.00 | 125,686.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,381,730.00 | 1,256,860.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 0.84 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.11 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,788.00 | 7,055.00 |
| Queries per second | 67,880.00 | 70,550.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.4 | 0.33 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.47 | 1.42 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.49 | 7.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.96 | 2.07 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,804.00 | 6,592.00 |
| Queries per second | 68,040.00 | 65,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.38 | 0.43 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.47 | 1.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.19 | 3.28 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.93 | 2.03 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,044.00 | 5,138.00 |
| Queries per second | 50,440.00 | 51,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.89 | 1.07 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.98 | 1.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 27.43 | 39.78 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 2.81 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,825.00 | 4,781.00 |
| Queries per second | 58,250.00 | 47,810.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.87 | 1.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.72 | 2.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.75 | 19.23 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 3.07 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 48,264.00 | 41,513.00 |
| Queries per second | 482,640.00 | 415,130.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.21 | 0.24 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.26 | 11.7 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.37 | 1.67 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 37,850.11 | 62,073.25 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 38,971.16 | 58,719.91 |
| SET per Second | 37,271.71 | 54,171.18 |
| GET per Second | 37,807.18 | 64,308.68 |
| INCR per Second | 38,729.67 | 55,648.30 |
| LPUSH per Second | 35,373.19 | 55,493.89 |
| RPUSH per Second | 38,669.76 | 52,938.06 |
| LPOP per Second | 38,834.95 | 62,539.09 |
| RPOP per Second | 39,651.07 | 66,269.05 |
| SADD per Second | 36,523.01 | 62,189.05 |
| HSET per Second | 37,064.49 | 55,157.20 |
| SPOP per Second | 39,619.65 | 54,674.69 |
| ZADD per Second | 39,123.63 | 55,035.77 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 38,153.38 | 55,035.77 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 26,253.61 | 37,355.25 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 14,598.54 | 21,715.53 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 10,203.04 | 16,084.93 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 8,869.97 | 14,990.26 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 35,625.22 | 57,770.08 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.90 | 0.42 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.87 | 0.44 |
| SET | 0.92 | 0.48 |
| GET | 0.90 | 0.40 |
| INCR | 0.88 | 0.47 |
| LPUSH | 0.96 | 0.47 |
| RPUSH | 0.89 | 0.49 |
| LPOP | 0.89 | 0.42 |
| RPOP | 0.87 | 0.39 |
| SADD | 0.93 | 0.42 |
| HSET | 0.92 | 0.47 |
| SPOP | 0.86 | 0.47 |
| ZADD | 0.88 | 0.48 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.89 | 0.47 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.34 | 0.78 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 2.48 | 1.26 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 3.51 | 1.71 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 4.03 | 1.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.99 | 0.47 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The DigitalOcean Premium AMD (2 GB) instance shows robust performance in memory and file I/O operations, with high throughput and low latency for read and write operations. However, it lags behind in CPU-intensive tasks, Redis operations, and database operations compared to the DigitalOcean Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) instance, which excels in high concurrency and parallel processing due to its four CPU cores and larger memory. The 8 GB instance also outperforms in latency and throughput for file I/O operations. For developers needing a balance between cost and performance for memory-intensive, single-threaded workloads, the 2 GB instance is suitable. Conversely, the 8 GB instance is ideal for applications requiring high concurrency, parallel processing, and larger memory, such as data-intensive applications and high-performance databases.
From the friendly human:
If you found this VPS Showdown helpful in your search for a hosting provider, please consider supporting my efforts by signing up using my referral link for DigitalOcean.
You can also support me directly by buying me a coffee.