DigitalOcean Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) vs. DigitalOcean Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores)
New day, new benchmarks. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and did some benchmarking. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Let's get into the numbers.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sat, 30 May 2026 15:00:52 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 | $24.00 | $56.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 4 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 80 | 160 |
| Storage Type | SSD | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 4 | 5 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Regular | DO-Premium-AMD |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.15 | 1,996.25 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.29 | 3,992.50 |
| Events per Second | 871.36 | 1,535.42 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.91 | 0.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.15 | 0.65 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.11 | 0.89 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 0.69 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,167,908.44 | 4,867,578.39 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,070.22 | 4,753.49 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.26 | 0.19 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,455,346.90 | 4,347,879.44 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,350.92 | 4,245.98 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.26 | 0.56 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,278.19 | 2,384.51 |
| Writes per Second | 1,518.80 | 1,589.67 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 4,871.44 | 5,095.64 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 35.60 | 37.26 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 23.73 | 24.84 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.11 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.59 | 9.42 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.37 | 0.58 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,307.95 | 325.10 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,349.23 | 435.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,391.63 | 487.90 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,401.61 | 484.44 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,297.00 | 5,392.00 |
| Queries per second | 42,970.00 | 53,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.39 | 1.37 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.32 | 1.85 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.78 | 3 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.97 | 2.35 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,514.00 | 3,296.00 |
| Queries per second | 35,140.00 | 32,960.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 1.47 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.84 | 3.03 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.78 | 19.45 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.1 | 4.41 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,947.00 | 1,930.00 |
| Queries per second | 19,470.00 | 19,300.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.91 | 3.41 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.13 | 5.18 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.08 | 26.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.67 | 6.55 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,796.00 | 4,756.00 |
| Queries per second | 67,960.00 | 47,560.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.65 | 1.08 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.47 | 2.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.09 | 40.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.18 | 3.25 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,055,467.00 | 1,434,092.00 |
| Queries per second | 10,554,670.00 | 14,340,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 573.76 | 418.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 123,372.00 | 125,686.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,233,720.00 | 1,256,860.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.53 | 0.84 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.12 | 0.11 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,146.00 | 7,055.00 |
| Queries per second | 41,460.00 | 70,550.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.81 | 0.33 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.41 | 1.42 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 21.02 | 7.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.36 | 2.07 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,644.00 | 6,592.00 |
| Queries per second | 46,440.00 | 65,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.75 | 0.43 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.15 | 1.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.73 | 3.28 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.19 | 2.03 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,918.00 | 5,138.00 |
| Queries per second | 59,180.00 | 51,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.61 | 1.07 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.69 | 1.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 17.54 | 39.78 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.71 | 2.81 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,844.00 | 4,781.00 |
| Queries per second | 68,440.00 | 47,810.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.7 | 1.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.46 | 2.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.43 | 19.23 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.11 | 3.07 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 55,206.00 | 41,513.00 |
| Queries per second | 552,060.00 | 415,130.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.24 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.66 | 11.7 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.18 | 1.67 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 50,607.29 | 62,073.25 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 44,169.61 | 58,719.91 |
| SET per Second | 44,444.45 | 54,171.18 |
| GET per Second | 47,619.05 | 64,308.68 |
| INCR per Second | 48,638.13 | 55,648.30 |
| LPUSH per Second | 49,603.17 | 55,493.89 |
| RPUSH per Second | 47,664.44 | 52,938.06 |
| LPOP per Second | 50,942.43 | 62,539.09 |
| RPOP per Second | 48,216.01 | 66,269.05 |
| SADD per Second | 48,379.30 | 62,189.05 |
| HSET per Second | 48,053.82 | 55,157.20 |
| SPOP per Second | 50,301.81 | 54,674.69 |
| ZADD per Second | 54,495.91 | 55,035.77 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 50,864.70 | 55,035.77 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 33,523.30 | 37,355.25 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 16,619.58 | 21,715.53 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 10,716.96 | 16,084.93 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 9,849.31 | 14,990.26 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 46,189.38 | 57,770.08 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.55 | 0.42 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.59 | 0.44 |
| SET | 0.60 | 0.48 |
| GET | 0.56 | 0.40 |
| INCR | 0.55 | 0.47 |
| LPUSH | 0.54 | 0.47 |
| RPUSH | 0.56 | 0.49 |
| LPOP | 0.53 | 0.42 |
| RPOP | 0.56 | 0.39 |
| SADD | 0.55 | 0.42 |
| HSET | 0.57 | 0.47 |
| SPOP | 0.53 | 0.47 |
| ZADD | 0.50 | 0.48 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.52 | 0.47 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.04 | 0.78 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.78 | 1.26 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.92 | 1.71 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 3.43 | 1.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.67 | 0.47 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Analyzing the benchmark results for both the DigitalOcean Regular instance (4 GB, 2 cores) and the Premium AMD instance (8 GB, 4 cores), it's clear that the Premium AMD instance exhibits superior performance across the board, notably in terms of raw computation speed and memory handling. It achieves higher RPS rates for Redis commands, better CPU event handling per second, and faster file I/O operations. Despite its higher cost, this instance’s substantial boost in performance, particularly in memory operations and MySQL bulk inserts, makes it ideal for CPU-intensive and memory-demanding workloads. Conversely, the Regular instance, while more affordable, shows respectable performance but is notably limited in comparison, making it more suitable for lighter tasks where cost is a primary concern over maximum performance.
From the friendly human:
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