DigitalOcean Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) vs. DigitalOcean Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sat, 30 May 2026 17:00:53 GMT | Tue, 02 Jun 2026 06:00:52 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 | $28.00 | $64.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 4 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 80 | 240 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 6 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-AMD | DO-Premium-Intel |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 1,996.25 | 1,995.31 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 4,096.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,992.49 | 3,990.61 |
| Events per Second | 1,507.58 | 2,100.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.6 | 0.46 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.66 | 0.48 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.5 | 0.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.74 | 0.49 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,451,201.81 | 4,031,036.30 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,346.88 | 3,936.56 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.42 | 0.09 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,886,468.54 | 4,327,248.72 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,771.94 | 4,225.83 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.29 | 0.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,632.78 | 1,848.36 |
| Writes per Second | 1,088.52 | 1,232.24 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,483.47 | 3,943.27 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 25.51 | 28.88 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 17.01 | 19.25 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.16 | 0.14 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 16.1 | 32.73 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.61 | 0.83 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 882.26 | 496.91 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 948.17 | 678.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 982.40 | 755.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 977.74 | 759.88 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,052.00 | 5,172.00 |
| Queries per second | 60,520.00 | 51,720.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.36 | 1.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.65 | 1.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.73 | 8.32 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.11 | 2.61 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,898.00 | 2,301.00 |
| Queries per second | 28,980.00 | 23,010.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.44 | 1.35 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.45 | 4.34 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 93.68 | 12.64 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.28 | 7.3 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,886.00 | 1,495.00 |
| Queries per second | 18,860.00 | 14,950.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 3.15 | 2.89 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.3 | 6.68 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 84.59 | 19.01 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.43 | 10.46 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,486.00 | 3,010.00 |
| Queries per second | 44,860.00 | 30,100.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.06 | 1.11 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.23 | 3.32 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.55 | 14.62 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.68 | 6.09 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,434,092.00 | 1,201,092.00 |
| Queries per second | 14,340,920.00 | 12,010,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 414.91 | 566.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 119,923.00 | 157,927.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,199,230.00 | 1,579,270.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.68 | 2.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.09 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,111.00 | 5,434.00 |
| Queries per second | 71,110.00 | 54,340.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.49 | 0.45 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.4 | 1.84 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.53 | 14.81 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2 | 2.71 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,087.00 | 6,582.00 |
| Queries per second | 60,870.00 | 65,820.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.44 | 0.57 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.64 | 1.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.34 | 5.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.22 | 2.66 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,391.00 | 3,033.00 |
| Queries per second | 43,910.00 | 30,330.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.02 | 1 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.28 | 3.29 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 16.67 | 67.75 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.68 | 5.99 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,148.00 | 3,268.00 |
| Queries per second | 41,480.00 | 32,680.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.28 | 1.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.41 | 3.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.58 | 11.49 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.82 | 5.57 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 26,739.00 | 24,924.00 |
| Queries per second | 267,390.00 | 249,240.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.37 | 0.4 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.65 | 26.64 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.39 | 2.81 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 60,386.47 | 93,545.37 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 58,962.27 | 87,796.30 |
| SET per Second | 50,100.20 | 93,457.94 |
| GET per Second | 51,387.46 | 94,250.71 |
| INCR per Second | 51,786.64 | 85,106.38 |
| LPUSH per Second | 53,276.50 | 95,057.03 |
| RPUSH per Second | 50,454.09 | 86,505.19 |
| LPOP per Second | 50,327.12 | 89,285.71 |
| RPOP per Second | 50,050.05 | 100,100.10 |
| SADD per Second | 46,576.62 | 90,661.83 |
| HSET per Second | 49,701.79 | 90,415.91 |
| SPOP per Second | 48,379.30 | 96,432.02 |
| ZADD per Second | 49,950.05 | 97,751.71 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 49,455.98 | 97,751.71 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 39,032.00 | 58,997.05 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 22,456.77 | 26,191.72 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 16,097.88 | 15,961.69 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 14,760.15 | 14,390.56 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 50,581.69 | 73,152.89 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.44 | 0.28 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.44 | 0.31 |
| SET | 0.52 | 0.31 |
| GET | 0.51 | 0.28 |
| INCR | 0.50 | 0.31 |
| LPUSH | 0.49 | 0.29 |
| RPUSH | 0.52 | 0.32 |
| LPOP | 0.52 | 0.32 |
| RPOP | 0.53 | 0.27 |
| SADD | 0.57 | 0.32 |
| HSET | 0.53 | 0.29 |
| SPOP | 0.54 | 0.30 |
| ZADD | 0.52 | 0.31 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.53 | 0.28 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.70 | 0.46 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.21 | 1.05 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.74 | 2.04 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.91 | 2.12 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.59 | 0.49 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The DigitalOcean Premium Intel instance (8 GB, 4 Cores) outperforms the Premium AMD instance (4 GB, 2 Cores) across most benchmarks, delivering higher rates of operations per second for Redis commands and better throughput for CPU, file I/O, memory, and MySQL operations. The Intel instance also shows lower latencies in most metrics, indicating faster response times. Given this superior performance, the Intel instance is better suited for high-demand, CPU-intensive, and I/O-heavy workloads, making it ideal for enterprise applications requiring robust and scalable performance, whereas the AMD instance, while competent for lighter workloads, may not provide the same level of throughput or low latency as needed in more demanding environments.
From the friendly human:
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