DigitalOcean Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) vs. UpCloud Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Welcome to another round of the VPS Showdown. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Time to see who showed up today.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sun, 31 May 2026 20:00:52 GMT | Sun, 31 May 2026 19:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-111-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 | $56.00 | €52.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 8 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 4 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 160 | 160 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 5 | 5 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-AMD | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 1,996.25 | 3,295.46 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,992.50 | 6,590.91 |
| Events per Second | 1,535.42 | 5,628.46 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.59 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.65 | 0.18 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.89 | 0.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.69 | 0.19 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,867,578.39 | 7,929,659.23 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,753.49 | 7,743.81 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.19 | 0.17 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,347,879.44 | 7,814,821.77 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,245.98 | 7,631.66 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.56 | 0.1 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,384.51 | 7,270.40 |
| Writes per Second | 1,589.67 | 4,846.94 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 5,095.64 | 15,522.49 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 37.26 | 113.60 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 24.84 | 75.73 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.42 | 16.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.58 | 0.19 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 325.10 | 235.51 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 435.66 | 282.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 487.90 | 313.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 484.44 | 314.45 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,392.00 | 22,259.00 |
| Queries per second | 53,920.00 | 222,590.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.37 | 0.32 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.85 | 0.45 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3 | 1.33 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.35 | 0.59 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,296.00 | 7,108.00 |
| Queries per second | 32,960.00 | 71,080.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.47 | 0.7 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.03 | 1.41 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 19.45 | 25.2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 1.93 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,930.00 | 5,280.00 |
| Queries per second | 19,300.00 | 52,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 3.41 | 1.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.18 | 1.89 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 26.77 | 33.44 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.55 | 2.57 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,756.00 | 9,445.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,560.00 | 94,450.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.08 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.1 | 1.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 40.66 | 26.94 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.25 | 1.44 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,434,092.00 | 3,327,217.00 |
| Queries per second | 14,340,920.00 | 33,272,170.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 418.16 | 150.75 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 125,686.00 | 664,037.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,256,860.00 | 6,640,370.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.84 | 0.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.02 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,055.00 | 16,890.00 |
| Queries per second | 70,550.00 | 168,900.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.33 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.42 | 0.59 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.12 | 3.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.07 | 0.92 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,592.00 | 17,978.00 |
| Queries per second | 65,920.00 | 179,780.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.43 | 0.15 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.52 | 0.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.28 | 1.62 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.03 | 0.89 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,138.00 | 7,331.00 |
| Queries per second | 51,380.00 | 73,310.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.07 | 0.5 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.94 | 1.36 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 39.78 | 24.1 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.81 | 2.26 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,781.00 | 8,267.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,810.00 | 82,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.13 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.09 | 1.21 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 19.23 | 14.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.07 | 1.64 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 41,513.00 | 289,336.00 |
| Queries per second | 415,130.00 | 2,893,360.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.24 | 0.03 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.7 | 33.11 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.67 | 0.03 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 62,073.25 | 239,234.44 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 58,719.91 | 223,214.28 |
| SET per Second | 54,171.18 | 257,731.95 |
| GET per Second | 64,308.68 | 269,541.78 |
| INCR per Second | 55,648.30 | 240,963.86 |
| LPUSH per Second | 55,493.89 | 258,397.94 |
| RPUSH per Second | 52,938.06 | 267,379.66 |
| LPOP per Second | 62,539.09 | 267,379.66 |
| RPOP per Second | 66,269.05 | 272,479.56 |
| SADD per Second | 62,189.05 | 280,898.88 |
| HSET per Second | 55,157.20 | 258,397.94 |
| SPOP per Second | 54,674.69 | 253,164.55 |
| ZADD per Second | 55,035.77 | 250,626.58 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 55,035.77 | 269,541.78 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 37,355.25 | 165,289.25 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 21,715.53 | 70,372.98 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 16,084.93 | 38,699.69 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 14,990.26 | 35,298.27 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 57,770.08 | 225,225.22 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.42 | 0.11 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.44 | 0.12 |
| SET | 0.48 | 0.10 |
| GET | 0.40 | 0.10 |
| INCR | 0.47 | 0.11 |
| LPUSH | 0.47 | 0.10 |
| RPUSH | 0.49 | 0.10 |
| LPOP | 0.42 | 0.10 |
| RPOP | 0.39 | 0.11 |
| SADD | 0.42 | 0.09 |
| HSET | 0.47 | 0.10 |
| SPOP | 0.47 | 0.10 |
| ZADD | 0.48 | 0.11 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.47 | 0.10 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.78 | 0.18 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.26 | 0.41 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.71 | 0.76 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.91 | 0.84 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.47 | 0.14 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Upon comparing the benchmarks of DigitalOcean's Premium AMD and UpCloud's Balanced instances, UpCloud's configuration demonstrates superior overall performance, particularly in Redis benchmarks where it achieves significantly higher requests per second (rps) and lower latencies across a variety of operations. The AMD EPYC processor in UpCloud's instance also outperforms in CPU benchmarks, showing faster events per second and lower latencies. The file I/O operations also exhibit better throughput and lower latencies, suggesting an advantage in handling disk-intensive tasks. While both instances have similar RAM and core counts, UpCloud's higher clock speed and more substantial cache size contribute to its superior performance. DigitalOcean's instance, however, exhibits minimal thread fairness deviations, indicating a more consistent performance under load. Ideal use cases for UpCloud's instance would be for applications requiring high throughput and low latency, such as real-time data processing or high-traffic web services, while DigitalOcean's might be better suited for more consistent but not necessarily high-load workloads.
From the friendly human:
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