DigitalOcean Premium Intel (2 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and did some benchmarking. All instances were spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Time to see who showed up today.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sat, 30 May 2026 22:00:52 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 | $16.00 | $64.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 70 | 240 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 6 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | 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 | 495.64 | 2,100.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.91 | 0.46 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.01 | 0.48 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.47 | 0.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.19 | 0.49 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,562,900.21 | 4,031,036.30 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,479.39 | 3,936.56 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.78 | 0.09 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,559,986.14 | 4,327,248.72 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,453.11 | 4,225.83 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.03 | 0.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,991.18 | 1,848.36 |
| Writes per Second | 1,994.09 | 1,232.24 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 6,381.40 | 3,943.27 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 46.74 | 28.88 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 31.16 | 19.25 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.14 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.55 | 32.73 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.25 | 0.83 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2,305.94 | 496.91 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2,325.82 | 678.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2,341.18 | 755.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2,320.55 | 759.88 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,642.00 | 5,172.00 |
| Queries per second | 56,420.00 | 51,720.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.09 | 1.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.77 | 1.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.6 | 8.32 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.26 | 2.61 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,500.00 | 2,301.00 |
| Queries per second | 65,000.00 | 23,010.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.69 | 1.35 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.54 | 4.34 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.05 | 12.64 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.07 | 7.3 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,286.00 | 1,495.00 |
| Queries per second | 22,860.00 | 14,950.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.63 | 2.89 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.37 | 6.68 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.8 | 19.01 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.88 | 10.46 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,299.00 | 3,010.00 |
| Queries per second | 82,990.00 | 30,100.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 1.11 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.2 | 3.32 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.9 | 14.62 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.93 | 6.09 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 964,103.00 | 1,201,092.00 |
| Queries per second | 9,641,030.00 | 12,010,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 474.48 | 566.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 181,396.00 | 157,927.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,813,960.00 | 1,579,270.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.44 | 2.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.09 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,155.00 | 5,434.00 |
| Queries per second | 81,550.00 | 54,340.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.47 | 0.45 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.22 | 1.84 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.12 | 14.81 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.58 | 2.71 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,540.00 | 6,582.00 |
| Queries per second | 85,400.00 | 65,820.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.33 | 0.57 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.17 | 1.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.83 | 5.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.52 | 2.66 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,509.00 | 3,033.00 |
| Queries per second | 75,090.00 | 30,330.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.5 | 1 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.33 | 3.29 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.77 | 67.75 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.26 | 5.99 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 9,508.00 | 3,268.00 |
| Queries per second | 95,080.00 | 32,680.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 1.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.05 | 3.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.78 | 11.49 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.52 | 5.57 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 85,917.00 | 24,924.00 |
| Queries per second | 859,170.00 | 249,240.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.12 | 0.4 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.24 | 26.64 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.29 | 2.81 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 83,263.95 | 93,545.37 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 86,880.97 | 87,796.30 |
| SET per Second | 82,987.55 | 93,457.94 |
| GET per Second | 85,616.44 | 94,250.71 |
| INCR per Second | 84,674.01 | 85,106.38 |
| LPUSH per Second | 82,781.46 | 95,057.03 |
| RPUSH per Second | 84,530.86 | 86,505.19 |
| LPOP per Second | 82,781.46 | 89,285.71 |
| RPOP per Second | 81,967.21 | 100,100.10 |
| SADD per Second | 84,317.03 | 90,661.83 |
| HSET per Second | 76,923.08 | 90,415.91 |
| SPOP per Second | 86,058.52 | 96,432.02 |
| ZADD per Second | 82,034.45 | 97,751.71 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 84,817.64 | 97,751.71 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 42,176.30 | 58,997.05 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 19,331.14 | 26,191.72 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 12,430.08 | 15,961.69 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 10,767.74 | 14,390.56 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 72,886.30 | 73,152.89 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.39 | 0.28 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.37 | 0.31 |
| SET | 0.39 | 0.31 |
| GET | 0.38 | 0.28 |
| INCR | 0.38 | 0.31 |
| LPUSH | 0.39 | 0.29 |
| RPUSH | 0.39 | 0.32 |
| LPOP | 0.40 | 0.32 |
| RPOP | 0.40 | 0.27 |
| SADD | 0.39 | 0.32 |
| HSET | 0.42 | 0.29 |
| SPOP | 0.38 | 0.30 |
| ZADD | 0.40 | 0.31 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.38 | 0.28 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.86 | 0.46 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.91 | 1.05 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.95 | 2.04 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 3.39 | 2.12 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.48 | 0.49 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Upon analyzing the benchmarks of the two DigitalOcean instances, it's clear that the Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) instance outperforms the Premium Intel (2 GB) in almost all metrics, reflecting its higher CPU power, memory capacity, and overall throughput. The 4-core, 8-GB variant demonstrates superior performance in CPU-intensive tasks, memory operations, file I/O, and database benchmarks, including higher requests per second and lower latencies across various tests, suggesting it is well-suited for demanding applications such as high-concurrency web services, data processing pipelines, and large-scale databases. The 2-GB instance, while still performing adequately, lags behind in multi-threaded and memory-heavy workloads, making it more appropriate for lighter tasks or as a development/testing environment where cost is a primary concern.
From the friendly human:
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