DigitalOcean Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) vs. UpCloud Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores)
New day, new benchmarks. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and ran my world famous suite of benchmarking scripts. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Tue, 02 Jun 2026 06:00:52 GMT | Sun, 31 May 2026 19:00:52 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 | $64.00 | €52.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 8 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 4 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 240 | 160 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 6 | 5 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-Intel | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 1,995.31 | 3,295.46 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,990.61 | 6,590.91 |
| Events per Second | 2,100.00 | 5,628.46 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.18 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.77 | 0.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.49 | 0.19 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,031,036.30 | 7,929,659.23 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,936.56 | 7,743.81 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.17 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,327,248.72 | 7,814,821.77 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,225.83 | 7,631.66 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.1 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,848.36 | 7,270.40 |
| Writes per Second | 1,232.24 | 4,846.94 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,943.27 | 15,522.49 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 28.88 | 113.60 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 19.25 | 75.73 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.14 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.73 | 16.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.83 | 0.19 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 496.91 | 235.51 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 678.09 | 282.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 755.25 | 313.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 759.88 | 314.45 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,172.00 | 22,259.00 |
| Queries per second | 51,720.00 | 222,590.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.28 | 0.32 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.93 | 0.45 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.32 | 1.33 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.61 | 0.59 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,301.00 | 7,108.00 |
| Queries per second | 23,010.00 | 71,080.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.35 | 0.7 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.34 | 1.41 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.64 | 25.2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.3 | 1.93 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,495.00 | 5,280.00 |
| Queries per second | 14,950.00 | 52,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.89 | 1.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 6.68 | 1.89 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 19.01 | 33.44 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 10.46 | 2.57 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,010.00 | 9,445.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,100.00 | 94,450.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.11 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.32 | 1.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.62 | 26.94 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.09 | 1.44 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,201,092.00 | 3,327,217.00 |
| Queries per second | 12,010,920.00 | 33,272,170.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 566.03 | 150.75 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 157,927.00 | 664,037.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,579,270.00 | 6,640,370.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.99 | 0.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.02 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,434.00 | 16,890.00 |
| Queries per second | 54,340.00 | 168,900.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.45 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.84 | 0.59 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.81 | 3.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.71 | 0.92 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,582.00 | 17,978.00 |
| Queries per second | 65,820.00 | 179,780.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.57 | 0.15 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.52 | 0.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.15 | 1.62 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 0.89 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,033.00 | 7,331.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,330.00 | 73,310.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1 | 0.5 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.29 | 1.36 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 67.75 | 24.1 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.99 | 2.26 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,268.00 | 8,267.00 |
| Queries per second | 32,680.00 | 82,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.03 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.06 | 1.21 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.49 | 14.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.57 | 1.64 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 24,924.00 | 289,336.00 |
| Queries per second | 249,240.00 | 2,893,360.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.4 | 0.03 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 26.64 | 33.11 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.81 | 0.03 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 93,545.37 | 239,234.44 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 87,796.30 | 223,214.28 |
| SET per Second | 93,457.94 | 257,731.95 |
| GET per Second | 94,250.71 | 269,541.78 |
| INCR per Second | 85,106.38 | 240,963.86 |
| LPUSH per Second | 95,057.03 | 258,397.94 |
| RPUSH per Second | 86,505.19 | 267,379.66 |
| LPOP per Second | 89,285.71 | 267,379.66 |
| RPOP per Second | 100,100.10 | 272,479.56 |
| SADD per Second | 90,661.83 | 280,898.88 |
| HSET per Second | 90,415.91 | 258,397.94 |
| SPOP per Second | 96,432.02 | 253,164.55 |
| ZADD per Second | 97,751.71 | 250,626.58 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 97,751.71 | 269,541.78 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 58,997.05 | 165,289.25 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 26,191.72 | 70,372.98 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 15,961.69 | 38,699.69 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 14,390.56 | 35,298.27 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 73,152.89 | 225,225.22 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.28 | 0.11 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.31 | 0.12 |
| SET | 0.31 | 0.10 |
| GET | 0.28 | 0.10 |
| INCR | 0.31 | 0.11 |
| LPUSH | 0.29 | 0.10 |
| RPUSH | 0.32 | 0.10 |
| LPOP | 0.32 | 0.10 |
| RPOP | 0.27 | 0.11 |
| SADD | 0.32 | 0.09 |
| HSET | 0.29 | 0.10 |
| SPOP | 0.30 | 0.10 |
| ZADD | 0.31 | 0.11 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.28 | 0.10 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.46 | 0.18 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.05 | 0.41 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.04 | 0.76 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.12 | 0.84 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.49 | 0.14 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The UpCloud Balanced instance outperforms the DigitalOcean Premium Intel instance in most benchmarks, particularly in Redis operations, where it achieves significantly higher requests per second and lower latencies across various commands, indicating better throughput and lower average response times. The UpCloud instance also excels in CPU performance with higher events per second and lower average latencies, suggesting it handles CPU-intensive tasks more efficiently. In file I/O operations, it shows comparable throughput but slightly higher latencies. The DigitalOcean instance, however, shines in memory operations with near-zero latency and higher throughput, making it a strong choice for memory-bound tasks. Given these results, the UpCloud instance is better suited for high-throughput, low-latency applications, whereas the DigitalOcean instance might be preferable for applications requiring high memory bandwidth and low memory operation latencies.
From the friendly human:
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