DigitalOcean Premium Intel (1 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB)
Last updated on October 1, 2026
Same showdown, different day. Today I've got brand new instances from DigitalOcean to run some benchmarks on. All instances were spun up with Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Last Benchmarked
Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:06:48 GMT
Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:03:47 GMT
Linux Distro
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version
7.0.0-31-generic
7.0.0-31-generic
MySQL Version
8.4.11-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
8.4.11-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
Redis Version
8.0.5
8.0.5
Location
New York, NY
New York, NY
Monthly Price
$8.00
$12.00
RAM (GB)
1
2
CPU Cores
1
1
Storage (TB)
35
50
Storage Type
NVMe
SSD
Transfer (TB)
1
2
Head-to-head
Category winners from the latest benchmarks.
Category Winner
CPU (events/sec) DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) Memory (read MiB/s) DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) Disk I/O (MiB/s) DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) MySQL (read/write tps) DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) Redis (GET/sec) DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) Value (CPU events per $/mo) DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) takes 6 of 6 categories.
CPU
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vendor
GenuineIntel
GenuineIntel
Model Name
DO-Premium-Intel
DO-Regular
Clock Speed (MHz)
2,494.14
2,294.61
CPU Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
4,096.00
BogoMips
4,988.27
4,589.21
Events per Second
990.53
370.52
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.93
1.05
Average Latency (ms)
1.01
2.69
Maximum Latency (ms)
1.75
14.47
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.12
4.57
Memory
Memory Read
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Operations per second
4,986,667.23
1,545,738.03
Mebibytes per second
4,869.79
1,509.51
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
0.41
40.5
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Operations per second
4,811,794.28
2,729,753.92
Mebibytes per second
4,699.02
2,665.78
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
2.38
149.26
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Reads per Second
3,138.93
475.95
Writes per Second
2,092.55
317.30
Fsyncs per Second
6,701.92
1,017.81
Read Mebibytes per Second
49.05
7.44
Written Mebibytes per Second
32.70
4.96
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.08
0.55
Maximum Latency (ms)
7.98
115.24
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.24
1.08
Mutex
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms)
1,655.46
2,875.76
Average Latency (ms)
1,661.19
2,899.88
Maximum Latency (ms)
1,666.55
2,919.44
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1,678.14
2,932.60
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
8,768.00
4,374.00
Queries per second
87,680.00
43,740.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.01
1.26
Average Latency (ms)
1.14
2.28
Maximum Latency (ms)
26.98
40.05
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.39
2.81
MySQL Write-only
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
7,876.00
273.00
Queries per second
78,760.00
2,730.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.8
4.19
Average Latency (ms)
1.27
36.89
Maximum Latency (ms)
10.49
358.42
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.76
130.13
MySQL Read/Write
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
3,893.00
258.00
Queries per second
38,930.00
2,580.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
2.06
6.26
Average Latency (ms)
2.57
38.75
Maximum Latency (ms)
13.44
259.21
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.13
123.28
MySQL INSERT
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
14,470.00
796.00
Queries per second
144,700.00
7,960.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.46
2.03
Average Latency (ms)
0.69
12.55
Maximum Latency (ms)
10.41
223.21
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.99
63.32
MySQL Bulk INSERT
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
1,346,717.00
374,315.00
Queries per second
13,467,170.00
3,743,150.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.01
0.03
Maximum Latency (ms)
324.88
3489.66
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
232,319.00
124,757.00
Queries per second
2,323,190.00
1,247,570.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.04
Average Latency (ms)
0.04
0.08
Maximum Latency (ms)
3.67
168.4
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.06
0.12
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
5,586.00
2,721.00
Queries per second
55,860.00
27,210.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.37
0.36
Average Latency (ms)
1.79
3.67
Maximum Latency (ms)
9.16
34.76
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.39
5
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
7,682.00
2,783.00
Queries per second
76,820.00
27,830.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.51
0.51
Average Latency (ms)
1.3
3.59
Maximum Latency (ms)
3.94
10.87
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.73
5.28
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
13,782.00
454.00
Queries per second
137,820.00
4,540.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.48
2.46
Average Latency (ms)
0.72
22.01
Maximum Latency (ms)
10.11
345.88
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.03
102.97
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
14,614.00
263.00
Queries per second
146,140.00
2,630.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.47
2.54
Average Latency (ms)
0.68
38
Maximum Latency (ms)
7.04
442.22
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.95
110.66
MySQL DELETE
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Transactions per second
157,825.00
1,343.00
Queries per second
1,578,250.00
13,430.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.03
0.06
Average Latency (ms)
0.06
7.46
Maximum Latency (ms)
19.19
266.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.1
34.33
Redis
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second
64,850.84
35,701.54
PING_MBULK per Second
66,711.14
40,338.84
SET per Second
70,175.44
37,119.52
GET per Second
71,684.59
38,343.56
INCR per Second
72,411.30
36,710.72
LPUSH per Second
69,832.40
35,637.92
RPUSH per Second
71,839.09
34,891.84
LPOP per Second
71,377.59
33,400.13
RPOP per Second
71,942.45
32,615.79
SADD per Second
71,428.57
25,246.15
HSET per Second
67,934.78
28,645.09
SPOP per Second
72,358.90
30,138.64
ZADD per Second
71,123.76
31,735.96
ZPOPMIN per Second
73,746.31
34,770.52
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
38,476.34
17,424.64
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
18,198.36
7,678.13
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
12,655.02
5,190.49
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
10,430.79
4,344.61
MSET (10 keys) per Second
63,816.21
27,434.84
Redis Average Latency (ms)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
PING_INLINE 0.49 0.87 PING_MBULK 0.47 0.75 SET 0.45 0.84 GET 0.44 0.81 INCR 0.44 0.85 LPUSH 0.45 0.88 RPUSH 0.44 0.90 LPOP 0.44 0.94 RPOP 0.44 0.96 SADD 0.44 1.23 HSET 0.47 1.09 SPOP 0.43 1.03 ZADD 0.44 0.98 ZPOPMIN 0.42 0.89 LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) 0.87 1.84 LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) 1.78 3.92 LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) 2.69 5.58 LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) 3.07 6.57 MSET (10 keys) 0.63 1.39
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The Premium Intel (1 GB) instance outperforms the Regular (2 GB) instance across most benchmarks, particularly in Redis operations like LPUSH and LRANGE, where it registers significantly higher requests per second (rps) and lower average latencies. For instance, the Premium Intel instance achieves 68,823.12 rps for LPUSH against 36,509.68 rps for the Regular instance, and its LRANGE_600 benchmark registers an average latency of 3.381 ms compared to 17.727 ms for the Regular instance. Consequently, the Premium Intel (1 GB) is more suitable for CPU-intensive and memory-bound tasks, offering better performance per dollar for applications that require high throughput and low latency.
From the friendly human:
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