DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Premium Intel (2 GB)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I spun up fresh instances from DigitalOcean and did some benchmarking. Each instance was running Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Let's get into the numbers.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:03:47 GMT | Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:08:17 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 | $12.00 | $16.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 50 | 70 |
| Storage Type | SSD | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 2 |
Head-to-head
Category winners from the latest benchmarks.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| CPU (events/sec) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) |
| Memory (read MiB/s) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) |
| Disk I/O (MiB/s) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) |
| MySQL (read/write tps) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) |
| Redis (GET/sec) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) |
| Value (CPU events per $/mo) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) |
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) takes 6 of 6 categories.
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Regular | DO-Premium-Intel |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,294.61 | 1,995.31 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 4,096.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,589.21 | 3,990.62 |
| Events per Second | 370.52 | 1,383.84 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.05 | 0.5 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.69 | 0.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.47 | 26.1 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.57 | 2.35 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 1,545,738.03 | 4,333,625.92 |
| Mebibytes per second | 1,509.51 | 4,232.06 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 40.5 | 2.09 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 2,729,753.92 | 4,219,640.73 |
| Mebibytes per second | 2,665.78 | 4,120.74 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 149.26 | 1.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 475.95 | 2,349.38 |
| Writes per Second | 317.30 | 1,566.26 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 1,017.81 | 5,019.91 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 7.44 | 36.71 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 4.96 | 24.47 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.55 | 0.11 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 115.24 | 3.32 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.08 | 0.41 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2,875.76 | 2,294.95 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2,899.88 | 2,302.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2,919.44 | 2,308.09 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2,932.60 | 2,320.55 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,374.00 | 8,290.00 |
| Queries per second | 43,740.00 | 82,900.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.26 | 1.02 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.28 | 1.2 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 40.05 | 3.93 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.81 | 1.82 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 273.00 | 4,835.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,730.00 | 48,350.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 4.19 | 1.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 36.89 | 2.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 358.42 | 28.71 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 130.13 | 2.86 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 258.00 | 2,440.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,580.00 | 24,400.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 6.26 | 2.47 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 38.75 | 4.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 259.21 | 34.94 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 123.28 | 5.77 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 796.00 | 8,740.00 |
| Queries per second | 7,960.00 | 87,400.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.03 | 0.61 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 12.55 | 1.14 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 223.21 | 31.28 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 63.32 | 1.86 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 374,315.00 | 1,201,092.00 |
| Queries per second | 3,743,150.00 | 12,010,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3489.66 | 416.59 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 124,757.00 | 233,729.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,247,570.00 | 2,337,290.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 168.4 | 1.09 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.12 | 0.06 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,721.00 | 5,487.00 |
| Queries per second | 27,210.00 | 54,870.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.36 | 0.53 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.67 | 1.82 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 34.76 | 7.49 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5 | 2.76 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,783.00 | 6,975.00 |
| Queries per second | 27,830.00 | 69,750.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.49 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.59 | 1.43 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.87 | 4.05 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.28 | 2.11 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 454.00 | 8,563.00 |
| Queries per second | 4,540.00 | 85,630.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.46 | 0.61 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 22.01 | 1.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 345.88 | 31.11 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 102.97 | 1.86 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 263.00 | 7,986.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,630.00 | 79,860.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.54 | 0.64 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 38 | 1.25 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 442.22 | 33.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 110.66 | 1.96 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,343.00 | 90,875.00 |
| Queries per second | 13,430.00 | 908,750.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 7.46 | 0.11 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 266.15 | 22.2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 34.33 | 0.19 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 35,701.54 | 65,876.16 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 40,338.84 | 63,856.96 |
| SET per Second | 37,119.52 | 62,972.29 |
| GET per Second | 38,343.56 | 57,339.45 |
| INCR per Second | 36,710.72 | 61,538.46 |
| LPUSH per Second | 35,637.92 | 66,889.63 |
| RPUSH per Second | 34,891.84 | 64,892.93 |
| LPOP per Second | 33,400.13 | 65,359.48 |
| RPOP per Second | 32,615.79 | 63,572.79 |
| SADD per Second | 25,246.15 | 63,613.23 |
| HSET per Second | 28,645.09 | 66,489.37 |
| SPOP per Second | 30,138.64 | 54,112.55 |
| ZADD per Second | 31,735.96 | 65,487.89 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 34,770.52 | 64,557.78 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 17,424.64 | 38,895.37 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 7,678.13 | 18,539.12 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 5,190.49 | 12,931.59 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 4,344.61 | 11,428.57 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 27,434.84 | 58,105.75 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.87 | 0.48 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.75 | 0.49 |
| SET | 0.84 | 0.51 |
| GET | 0.81 | 0.55 |
| INCR | 0.85 | 0.51 |
| LPUSH | 0.88 | 0.48 |
| RPUSH | 0.90 | 0.49 |
| LPOP | 0.94 | 0.49 |
| RPOP | 0.96 | 0.50 |
| SADD | 1.23 | 0.50 |
| HSET | 1.09 | 0.48 |
| SPOP | 1.03 | 0.59 |
| ZADD | 0.98 | 0.49 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.89 | 0.49 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.84 | 0.85 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 3.92 | 1.72 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 5.58 | 2.59 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 6.57 | 2.86 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 1.39 | 0.69 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The DigitalOcean Premium Intel (2 GB) instance outperforms the Regular (2 GB) in key benchmarks. The Premium Intel instance achieves higher Redis performance rates, such as 62,539 RPS for PING_INLINE compared to 48,100 RPS, and has significantly lower latencies, with an average of 0.511 ms versus 0.656 ms. Moreover, the CPU benchmark shows 1,916 events per second with the Premium Intel, surpassing the Regular's 1,294 events per second. For memory operations, the Premium Intel performs 4,203 thousand operations per second with zero average latency, while the Regular averages 0.661 ms. Overall, the superior performance in CPU, memory, and Redis benchmarks suggests the Premium Intel instance is better suited for CPU-intensive and memory-heavy workloads.
From the friendly human:
If you found this VPS Showdown helpful in your search for a hosting provider, please consider supporting my efforts by signing up using my referral link for DigitalOcean.
You can also support me next time you shop on Amazon.