DigitalOcean Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) vs. UpCloud Balanced (2 GB)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud to run some benchmarks on. All instances were running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Time to see who showed up today.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Mon, 11 May 2026 22:00:52 GMT | Wed, 13 May 2026 07:00:52 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 | $32.00 | €13.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 4 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 120 | 50 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 4 | 2 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-Intel | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 3,295.48 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.27 | 6,590.95 |
| Events per Second | 992.83 | 5,025.21 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.86 | 0.18 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.01 | 0.2 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.23 | 5.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.25 | 0.22 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,905,242.82 | 5,932,400.60 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,790.28 | 5,793.36 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.19 | 2.22 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,815,991.25 | 6,706,599.41 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,703.12 | 6,549.41 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 1.56 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 4,785.00 | 3,214.64 |
| Writes per Second | 3,190.00 | 2,143.03 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 10,212.70 | 6,864.71 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 74.77 | 50.23 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 49.84 | 33.48 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.33 | 20.14 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.31 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 822.70 | 1,349.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 935.98 | 1,353.60 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,001.22 | 1,361.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 995.51 | 1,352.03 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,787.00 | 19,090.00 |
| Queries per second | 77,870.00 | 190,900.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.11 | 0.31 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.28 | 0.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.84 | 5.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.44 | 0.64 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,999.00 | 3,974.00 |
| Queries per second | 69,990.00 | 39,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.79 | 0.87 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.43 | 2.51 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.84 | 38.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2 | 5 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,678.00 | 2,830.00 |
| Queries per second | 36,780.00 | 28,300.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.93 | 1.29 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.72 | 3.53 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.01 | 56.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.68 | 6.32 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,193.00 | 4,647.00 |
| Queries per second | 121,930.00 | 46,470.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.61 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 2.15 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.57 | 28.58 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.18 | 4.41 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,550,592.00 | 2,249,592.00 |
| Queries per second | 15,505,920.00 | 22,495,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 364.28 | 207.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 201,090.00 | 645,161.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,010,900.00 | 6,451,610.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.3 | 2.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.02 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,612.00 | 8,546.00 |
| Queries per second | 76,120.00 | 85,460.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.31 | 1.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.34 | 172.57 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.67 | 1.58 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,371.00 | 11,562.00 |
| Queries per second | 73,710.00 | 115,620.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.36 | 0.86 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 4.07 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.82 | 1.27 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,702.00 | 4,711.00 |
| Queries per second | 117,020.00 | 47,110.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.47 | 0.73 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.85 | 2.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.97 | 30.41 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.21 | 3.96 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,879.00 | 5,393.00 |
| Queries per second | 118,790.00 | 53,930.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.45 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.84 | 1.85 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.93 | 39 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.16 | 3.43 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 123,827.00 | 101,195.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,238,270.00 | 1,011,950.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 15.57 | 39.3 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.17 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 91,157.70 | 130,208.34 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 97,847.36 | 130,208.34 |
| SET per Second | 102,774.92 | 130,890.05 |
| GET per Second | 102,040.81 | 129,198.97 |
| INCR per Second | 102,354.15 | 128,534.70 |
| LPUSH per Second | 100,908.17 | 128,040.97 |
| RPUSH per Second | 100,704.94 | 126,582.27 |
| LPOP per Second | 98,619.32 | 124,688.28 |
| RPOP per Second | 97,847.36 | 127,226.46 |
| SADD per Second | 99,403.58 | 129,198.97 |
| HSET per Second | 99,502.48 | 133,511.34 |
| SPOP per Second | 99,009.90 | 139,275.77 |
| ZADD per Second | 102,564.10 | 130,039.02 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 102,354.15 | 129,701.68 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 65,445.03 | 55,524.71 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 30,571.69 | 28,785.26 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 19,650.22 | 18,942.98 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 16,854.88 | 17,038.68 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 106,837.61 | 108,225.10 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.28 | 0.25 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.27 | 0.25 |
| SET | 0.26 | 0.26 |
| GET | 0.26 | 0.26 |
| INCR | 0.26 | 0.26 |
| LPUSH | 0.26 | 0.26 |
| RPUSH | 0.26 | 0.27 |
| LPOP | 0.26 | 0.27 |
| RPOP | 0.32 | 0.27 |
| SADD | 0.26 | 0.26 |
| HSET | 0.26 | 0.26 |
| SPOP | 0.27 | 0.24 |
| ZADD | 0.26 | 0.26 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.25 | 0.26 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.44 | 0.66 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 0.95 | 1.27 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.50 | 1.95 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.71 | 2.16 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.31 | 0.34 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The DigitalOcean Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) instance excels in memory-intensive tasks, demonstrating high read and write throughput, minimal latency, and superior thread fairness, making it ideal for CPU-bound and high-memory workloads such as large-scale data processing or high-frequency trading platforms. On the other hand, the UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) instance, powered by an AMD EPYC processor, offers outstanding raw CPU performance, superior Redis benchmarks, and high concurrency, making it particularly suitable for applications requiring extensive CPU resources, such as video rendering or high-throughput data analytics, although it may fall short in memory-intensive tasks due to its limited RAM.
From the friendly human:
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