DigitalOcean Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) vs. Vultr High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores)
New day, new benchmarks. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and ran some benchmarks. All instances were running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sat, 20 Jun 2026 21:00:52 GMT | Sun, 21 Jun 2026 15:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-124-generic |
| MySQL Version | 8.0.46-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 | 8.0.46-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 |
| Redis Version | 7.0.15 | 7.0.15 |
| Location | New York, NY | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | $32.00 | $48.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 4 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 120 | 180 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 4 | 6 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-Intel | AMD EPYC-Genoa Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 2,899.98 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 1,024.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.28 | 5,799.96 |
| Events per Second | 1,039.14 | 4,658.18 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.85 | 0.2 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.96 | 0.21 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.08 | 0.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.03 | 0.23 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,959,744.74 | 7,561,468.40 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,843.50 | 7,384.25 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.14 | 0.13 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,995,684.23 | 7,560,674.45 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,878.60 | 7,383.47 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.17 | 0.13 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 4,760.07 | 8,364.70 |
| Writes per Second | 3,173.32 | 5,576.46 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 10,155.25 | 17,853.48 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 74.38 | 130.70 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 49.58 | 87.13 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.03 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.06 | 0.78 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.19 | 0.1 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 792.60 | 188.23 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 878.66 | 288.67 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 917.99 | 344.46 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 909.80 | 344.08 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,694.00 | 9,869.00 |
| Queries per second | 76,940.00 | 98,690.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.03 | 0.83 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.3 | 1.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.3 | 1.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.58 | 1.08 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,437.00 | 9,371.00 |
| Queries per second | 74,370.00 | 93,710.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.81 | 0.75 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 1.07 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.67 | 2.79 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.89 | 1.23 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,284.00 | 4,752.00 |
| Queries per second | 32,840.00 | 47,520.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.97 | 1.55 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.04 | 2.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 15.21 | 13.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.18 | 2.35 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,648.00 | 15,074.00 |
| Queries per second | 126,480.00 | 150,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.46 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.79 | 0.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.78 | 2.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.16 | 0.8 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,521,467.00 | 3,152,467.00 |
| Queries per second | 15,214,670.00 | 31,524,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 304.55 | 189.09 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 191,104.00 | 223,139.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,911,040.00 | 2,231,390.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.36 | 0.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.06 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,141.00 | 15,194.00 |
| Queries per second | 71,410.00 | 151,940.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.47 | 0.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.4 | 0.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.12 | 2.01 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.82 | 0.83 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,439.00 | 14,532.00 |
| Queries per second | 74,390.00 | 145,320.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.36 | 0.21 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 0.69 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.51 | 1.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 0.87 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,066.00 | 14,288.00 |
| Queries per second | 120,660.00 | 142,880.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.47 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.83 | 0.7 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.8 | 16.02 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 0.87 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,349.00 | 14,516.00 |
| Queries per second | 123,490.00 | 145,160.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.47 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.81 | 0.69 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 19.91 | 1.87 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.14 | 0.83 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 127,904.00 | 149,277.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,279,040.00 | 1,492,770.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.02 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.07 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.93 | 4.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.08 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 97,087.38 | 58,445.36 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 97,181.73 | 58,377.11 |
| SET per Second | 95,693.78 | 58,479.53 |
| GET per Second | 94,161.95 | 57,971.02 |
| INCR per Second | 97,465.88 | 58,343.06 |
| LPUSH per Second | 96,061.48 | 59,737.16 |
| RPUSH per Second | 91,074.68 | 58,309.04 |
| LPOP per Second | 98,328.42 | 57,636.89 |
| RPOP per Second | 97,560.98 | 61,957.87 |
| SADD per Second | 98,328.42 | 59,488.40 |
| HSET per Second | 94,161.95 | 61,804.70 |
| SPOP per Second | 95,693.78 | 59,916.12 |
| ZADD per Second | 100,908.17 | 58,997.05 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 99,900.09 | 57,903.88 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 62,814.07 | 49,875.31 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 27,785.50 | 34,399.72 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 18,875.05 | 26,102.84 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 16,398.82 | 23,883.45 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 102,669.41 | 57,770.08 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance AMD (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.29 | 0.44 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.28 | 0.44 |
| SET | 0.27 | 0.44 |
| GET | 0.29 | 0.44 |
| INCR | 0.27 | 0.44 |
| LPUSH | 0.27 | 0.43 |
| RPUSH | 0.30 | 0.44 |
| LPOP | 0.29 | 0.45 |
| RPOP | 0.27 | 0.42 |
| SADD | 0.29 | 0.43 |
| HSET | 0.28 | 0.42 |
| SPOP | 0.27 | 0.43 |
| ZADD | 0.26 | 0.44 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.26 | 0.44 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.51 | 0.51 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.00 | 0.74 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.47 | 0.97 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.65 | 1.07 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.33 | 0.45 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Based on the benchmark results, the Vultr High Performance AMD instance (4 cores, 8 GB RAM) generally outperforms the DigitalOcean Premium Intel instance (2 cores, 4 GB RAM) across most metrics, with stronger results in CPU-bound, I/O-bound, and memory-intensive tasks, likely due to the higher core count and more substantial RAM. Vultr's instance shows superior Redis and MySQL performance, as well as faster file I/O and memory operations. While the DigitalOcean instance has competitive benchmarks, particularly in mutex and thread fairness, its lower core count and RAM limit its scalability for multi-threaded and high-memory applications. Consequently, the Vultr instance is ideal for CPU-intensive, I/O-heavy, and memory-demanding workloads, whereas the DigitalOcean instance might be more suitable for less resource-intensive tasks or scenarios where lower cost is a primary concern.
From the friendly human:
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