DigitalOcean Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) vs. DigitalOcean Premium Intel (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 spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sat, 30 May 2026 19:00:52 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 | $24.00 | $64.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 90 | 240 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 3 | 6 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-Intel | DO-Premium-Intel |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 1,995.31 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 4,096.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.28 | 3,990.61 |
| Events per Second | 963.13 | 2,100.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.91 | 0.46 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.04 | 0.48 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.44 | 0.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.25 | 0.49 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,902,195.50 | 4,031,036.30 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,810.74 | 3,936.56 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.26 | 0.09 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,569,743.82 | 4,327,248.72 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,462.64 | 4,225.83 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.15 | 0.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,742.35 | 1,848.36 |
| Writes per Second | 1,828.23 | 1,232.24 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 5,857.37 | 3,943.27 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 42.85 | 28.88 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 28.57 | 19.25 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.14 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.7 | 32.73 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.27 | 0.83 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 916.48 | 496.91 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,020.85 | 678.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,118.20 | 755.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,109.09 | 759.88 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,193.00 | 5,172.00 |
| Queries per second | 61,930.00 | 51,720.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.19 | 1.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.61 | 1.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.58 | 8.32 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.22 | 2.61 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,552.00 | 2,301.00 |
| Queries per second | 55,520.00 | 23,010.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.9 | 1.35 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.8 | 4.34 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.37 | 12.64 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 7.3 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,616.00 | 1,495.00 |
| Queries per second | 26,160.00 | 14,950.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.57 | 2.89 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.82 | 6.68 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.45 | 19.01 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5 | 10.46 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,253.00 | 3,010.00 |
| Queries per second | 82,530.00 | 30,100.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.54 | 1.11 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.21 | 3.32 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 15.31 | 14.62 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 6.09 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,346,717.00 | 1,201,092.00 |
| Queries per second | 13,467,170.00 | 12,010,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 383.36 | 566.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 167,795.00 | 157,927.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,677,950.00 | 1,579,270.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.06 | 2.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.09 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,976.00 | 5,434.00 |
| Queries per second | 59,760.00 | 54,340.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.56 | 0.45 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.67 | 1.84 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.01 | 14.81 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 2.71 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,014.00 | 6,582.00 |
| Queries per second | 60,140.00 | 65,820.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.67 | 0.57 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.66 | 1.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.75 | 5.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.76 | 2.66 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,636.00 | 3,033.00 |
| Queries per second | 86,360.00 | 30,330.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.53 | 1 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.16 | 3.29 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.85 | 67.75 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.7 | 5.99 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,678.00 | 3,268.00 |
| Queries per second | 86,780.00 | 32,680.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 1.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.15 | 3.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.84 | 11.49 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.67 | 5.57 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 67,961.00 | 24,924.00 |
| Queries per second | 679,610.00 | 249,240.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.15 | 0.4 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.86 | 26.64 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.83 | 2.81 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 80,450.52 | 93,545.37 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 89,047.20 | 87,796.30 |
| SET per Second | 84,602.37 | 93,457.94 |
| GET per Second | 86,281.27 | 94,250.71 |
| INCR per Second | 77,220.08 | 85,106.38 |
| LPUSH per Second | 71,942.45 | 95,057.03 |
| RPUSH per Second | 82,304.52 | 86,505.19 |
| LPOP per Second | 83,892.62 | 89,285.71 |
| RPOP per Second | 85,836.91 | 100,100.10 |
| SADD per Second | 87,108.02 | 90,661.83 |
| HSET per Second | 84,388.19 | 90,415.91 |
| SPOP per Second | 79,239.30 | 96,432.02 |
| ZADD per Second | 82,440.23 | 97,751.71 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 81,499.59 | 97,751.71 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 44,702.73 | 58,997.05 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 22,276.68 | 26,191.72 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 14,349.26 | 15,961.69 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 12,738.85 | 14,390.56 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 73,746.31 | 73,152.89 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.41 | 0.28 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.32 | 0.31 |
| SET | 0.40 | 0.31 |
| GET | 0.37 | 0.28 |
| INCR | 0.38 | 0.31 |
| LPUSH | 0.37 | 0.29 |
| RPUSH | 0.34 | 0.32 |
| LPOP | 0.32 | 0.32 |
| RPOP | 0.40 | 0.27 |
| SADD | 0.32 | 0.32 |
| HSET | 0.34 | 0.29 |
| SPOP | 0.39 | 0.30 |
| ZADD | 0.39 | 0.31 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.33 | 0.28 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.68 | 0.46 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.37 | 1.05 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.06 | 2.04 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.40 | 2.12 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.37 | 0.49 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Both DigitalOcean instances demonstrate robust performance, but the Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) significantly outperforms the Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) in almost all benchmark metrics. The larger instance provides higher rates of requests per second across various Redis operations, superior CPU and I/O throughput, and lower latency across the board for file operations, memory operations, and database queries. However, the smaller instance offers better thread fairness with no standard deviation, suggesting more consistent performance. For CPU-intensive, memory-heavy, or I/O-heavy workloads that require high concurrency and throughput, the 8 GB, 4 Cores instance is highly recommended. Conversely, for scenarios where minimal resource consumption and consistent but lower performance suffice, the 2 GB, 2 Cores instance could be more suitable due to its lower cost and simpler resource requirements.
From the friendly human:
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