DigitalOcean Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) vs. DigitalOcean Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sat, 30 May 2026 15:00:52 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) | 4 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 80 | 240 |
| Storage Type | SSD | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 4 | 6 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Regular | DO-Premium-Intel |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.15 | 1,995.31 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 4,096.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.29 | 3,990.61 |
| Events per Second | 871.36 | 2,100.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.91 | 0.46 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.15 | 0.48 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.11 | 0.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 0.49 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,167,908.44 | 4,031,036.30 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,070.22 | 3,936.56 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.26 | 0.09 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,455,346.90 | 4,327,248.72 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,350.92 | 4,225.83 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.26 | 0.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,278.19 | 1,848.36 |
| Writes per Second | 1,518.80 | 1,232.24 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 4,871.44 | 3,943.27 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 35.60 | 28.88 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 23.73 | 19.25 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.14 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.59 | 32.73 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.37 | 0.83 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,307.95 | 496.91 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,349.23 | 678.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,391.63 | 755.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,401.61 | 759.88 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,297.00 | 5,172.00 |
| Queries per second | 42,970.00 | 51,720.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.39 | 1.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.32 | 1.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.78 | 8.32 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.97 | 2.61 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,514.00 | 2,301.00 |
| Queries per second | 35,140.00 | 23,010.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 1.35 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.84 | 4.34 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.78 | 12.64 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.1 | 7.3 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,947.00 | 1,495.00 |
| Queries per second | 19,470.00 | 14,950.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.91 | 2.89 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.13 | 6.68 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.08 | 19.01 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.67 | 10.46 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,796.00 | 3,010.00 |
| Queries per second | 67,960.00 | 30,100.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.65 | 1.11 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.47 | 3.32 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.09 | 14.62 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.18 | 6.09 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,055,467.00 | 1,201,092.00 |
| Queries per second | 10,554,670.00 | 12,010,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 573.76 | 566.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 123,372.00 | 157,927.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,233,720.00 | 1,579,270.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.53 | 2.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.12 | 0.09 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,146.00 | 5,434.00 |
| Queries per second | 41,460.00 | 54,340.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.81 | 0.45 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.41 | 1.84 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 21.02 | 14.81 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.36 | 2.71 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,644.00 | 6,582.00 |
| Queries per second | 46,440.00 | 65,820.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.75 | 0.57 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.15 | 1.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.73 | 5.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.19 | 2.66 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,918.00 | 3,033.00 |
| Queries per second | 59,180.00 | 30,330.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.61 | 1 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.69 | 3.29 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 17.54 | 67.75 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.71 | 5.99 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,844.00 | 3,268.00 |
| Queries per second | 68,440.00 | 32,680.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.7 | 1.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.46 | 3.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.43 | 11.49 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.11 | 5.57 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 55,206.00 | 24,924.00 |
| Queries per second | 552,060.00 | 249,240.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.4 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.66 | 26.64 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.18 | 2.81 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 50,607.29 | 93,545.37 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 44,169.61 | 87,796.30 |
| SET per Second | 44,444.45 | 93,457.94 |
| GET per Second | 47,619.05 | 94,250.71 |
| INCR per Second | 48,638.13 | 85,106.38 |
| LPUSH per Second | 49,603.17 | 95,057.03 |
| RPUSH per Second | 47,664.44 | 86,505.19 |
| LPOP per Second | 50,942.43 | 89,285.71 |
| RPOP per Second | 48,216.01 | 100,100.10 |
| SADD per Second | 48,379.30 | 90,661.83 |
| HSET per Second | 48,053.82 | 90,415.91 |
| SPOP per Second | 50,301.81 | 96,432.02 |
| ZADD per Second | 54,495.91 | 97,751.71 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 50,864.70 | 97,751.71 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 33,523.30 | 58,997.05 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 16,619.58 | 26,191.72 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 10,716.96 | 15,961.69 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 9,849.31 | 14,390.56 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 46,189.38 | 73,152.89 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.55 | 0.28 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.59 | 0.31 |
| SET | 0.60 | 0.31 |
| GET | 0.56 | 0.28 |
| INCR | 0.55 | 0.31 |
| LPUSH | 0.54 | 0.29 |
| RPUSH | 0.56 | 0.32 |
| LPOP | 0.53 | 0.32 |
| RPOP | 0.56 | 0.27 |
| SADD | 0.55 | 0.32 |
| HSET | 0.57 | 0.29 |
| SPOP | 0.53 | 0.30 |
| ZADD | 0.50 | 0.31 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.52 | 0.28 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.04 | 0.46 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.78 | 1.05 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.92 | 2.04 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 3.43 | 2.12 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.67 | 0.49 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Upon analyzing the benchmark results for both DigitalOcean instances, it's evident that the Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) instance outperforms the Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) in almost every metric across CPU, memory, Redis, file IO, and MySQL operations, which is expected given its higher specification. The Premium instance shows significantly higher RPS rates for Redis commands, more efficient CPU utilization, faster and more consistent memory read and write operations, and superior MySQL performance. The Regular instance, while competent for lighter workloads and lower budget scenarios, exhibits noticeable performance bottlenecks in larger data handling tasks, longer latency in file IO operations, and higher throughput but lower efficiency in CPU-intensive tasks. For those needing high-performance computing resources and can afford a higher monthly fee, the Premium Intel instance is the ideal choice, whereas the Regular instance would be more suitable for basic, less demanding applications or for developers looking for cost-effective solutions.
From the friendly human:
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