My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and did some benchmarking. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Last Benchmarked
Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:00:52 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
$48.00
$64.00
RAM (GB)
8
8
CPU Cores
4
4
Storage (TB)
160
240
Storage Type
SSD
NVMe
Transfer (TB)
5
6
CPU
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Vendor
GenuineIntel
GenuineIntel
Model Name
DO-Regular
DO-Premium-Intel
Clock Speed (MHz)
2,494.13
1,995.31
CPU Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
4,096.00
BogoMips
4,988.26
3,990.61
Events per Second
849.54
2,100.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.91
0.46
Average Latency (ms)
1.18
0.48
Maximum Latency (ms)
4.42
0.77
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.42
0.49
Memory
Memory Read
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Operations per second
3,950,075.58
4,031,036.30
Mebibytes per second
3,857.50
3,936.56
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
0.35
0.09
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Operations per second
3,923,868.51
4,327,248.72
Mebibytes per second
3,831.90
4,225.83
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
0.33
0.18
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Reads per Second
3,587.28
1,848.36
Writes per Second
2,391.52
1,232.24
Fsyncs per Second
7,652.96
3,943.27
Read Mebibytes per Second
56.05
28.88
Written Mebibytes per Second
37.37
19.25
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.07
0.14
Maximum Latency (ms)
9.81
32.73
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.28
0.83
Mutex
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Minimum Latency (ms)
699.95
496.91
Average Latency (ms)
814.66
678.09
Maximum Latency (ms)
911.13
755.25
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
909.80
759.88
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Transactions per second
3,599.00
5,172.00
Queries per second
35,990.00
51,720.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.41
1.28
Average Latency (ms)
2.77
1.93
Maximum Latency (ms)
75.96
8.32
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.96
2.61
MySQL Write-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Transactions per second
2,588.00
2,301.00
Queries per second
25,880.00
23,010.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.37
1.35
Average Latency (ms)
3.86
4.34
Maximum Latency (ms)
24.15
12.64
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
7.98
7.3
MySQL Read/Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Transactions per second
1,484.00
1,495.00
Queries per second
14,840.00
14,950.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
3.49
2.89
Average Latency (ms)
6.73
6.68
Maximum Latency (ms)
84.28
19.01
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
11.65
10.46
MySQL INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Transactions per second
2,648.00
3,010.00
Queries per second
26,480.00
30,100.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.93
1.11
Average Latency (ms)
3.77
3.32
Maximum Latency (ms)
54.12
14.62
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
8.43
6.09
MySQL Bulk INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 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)
488.93
566.03
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Transactions per second
109,652.00
157,927.00
Queries per second
1,096,520.00
1,579,270.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.04
Average Latency (ms)
0.09
0.06
Maximum Latency (ms)
13.86
2.99
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.13
0.09
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Transactions per second
2,831.00
5,434.00
Queries per second
28,310.00
54,340.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.82
0.45
Average Latency (ms)
3.53
1.84
Maximum Latency (ms)
41.39
14.81
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
8.43
2.71
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Transactions per second
3,881.00
6,582.00
Queries per second
38,810.00
65,820.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.62
0.57
Average Latency (ms)
2.57
1.52
Maximum Latency (ms)
26.19
5.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.74
2.66
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Transactions per second
4,006.00
3,033.00
Queries per second
40,060.00
30,330.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.64
1
Average Latency (ms)
2.49
3.29
Maximum Latency (ms)
14.18
67.75
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.91
5.99
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Transactions per second
3,594.00
3,268.00
Queries per second
35,940.00
32,680.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.73
1.03
Average Latency (ms)
2.78
3.06
Maximum Latency (ms)
28.54
11.49
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
5.77
5.57
MySQL DELETE
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Transactions per second
16,967.00
24,924.00
Queries per second
169,670.00
249,240.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.04
Average Latency (ms)
0.59
0.4
Maximum Latency (ms)
19.13
26.64
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.91
2.81
Redis
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
PING_INLINE per Second
55,991.04
93,545.37
PING_MBULK per Second
53,050.40
87,796.30
SET per Second
52,882.07
93,457.94
GET per Second
48,732.94
94,250.71
INCR per Second
51,072.52
85,106.38
LPUSH per Second
50,276.52
95,057.03
RPUSH per Second
48,402.71
86,505.19
LPOP per Second
47,415.84
89,285.71
RPOP per Second
55,493.89
100,100.10
SADD per Second
54,200.54
90,661.83
HSET per Second
54,764.51
90,415.91
SPOP per Second
47,014.57
96,432.02
ZADD per Second
55,248.62
97,751.71
ZPOPMIN per Second
54,288.82
97,751.71
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
27,548.21
58,997.05
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
15,467.90
26,191.72
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
10,514.14
15,961.69
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
8,056.72
14,390.56
MSET (10 keys) per Second
45,475.22
73,152.89
Redis Average Latency (ms)
DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
PING_INLINE
0.49
0.28
PING_MBULK
0.50
0.31
SET
0.51
0.31
GET
0.57
0.28
INCR
0.59
0.31
LPUSH
0.67
0.29
RPUSH
0.55
0.32
LPOP
0.56
0.32
RPOP
0.48
0.27
SADD
0.49
0.32
HSET
0.52
0.29
SPOP
0.63
0.30
ZADD
0.48
0.31
ZPOPMIN
0.49
0.28
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
1.12
0.46
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
2.14
1.05
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
2.95
2.04
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
4.11
2.12
MSET (10 keys)
0.66
0.49
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Based on the benchmark results, the DigitalOcean Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) instance outperforms the Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) instance across the board in terms of raw performance metrics. The Premium instance shows significantly higher request rates per second (rps) and lower latencies for Redis operations like GET, SET, and INCR. CPU metrics also indicate better performance with higher events per second and lower latency. File I/O operations per second are also superior on the Premium instance, although both instances show strong performance in memory operations. Given these results, the Premium Intel instance is best suited for CPU-intensive and I/O-heavy workloads where high throughput and low latency are critical, while the Regular instance may be more cost-effective for less demanding applications.
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.