UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) vs. Vultr High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up brand new instance from UpCloud and Vultr to run some benchmarks on. Each instance was running 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
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Wed, 13 May 2026 07:00:52 GMT | Wed, 13 May 2026 08:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-111-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 | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | €13.00 | $24.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 4 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 50 | 128 |
| Storage Type | SSD | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 3 |
CPU
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor | Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS, no TSX) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 3,295.48 | 3,791.94 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 6,590.95 | 7,583.88 |
| Events per Second | 5,025.21 | 1,590.31 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.6 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.2 | 0.63 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.35 | 1.79 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 0.67 |
Memory
Memory Read
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,932,400.60 | 7,807,742.85 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,793.36 | 7,624.75 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.22 | 0.06 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 6,706,599.41 | 7,906,141.09 |
| Mebibytes per second | 6,549.41 | 7,720.84 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.56 | 0.04 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,214.64 | 8,035.78 |
| Writes per Second | 2,143.03 | 5,357.19 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 6,864.71 | 17,149.39 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 50.23 | 125.56 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 33.48 | 83.71 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.03 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 20.14 | 2.91 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.31 | 0.12 |
Mutex
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,349.13 | 530.07 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,353.60 | 548.97 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,361.99 | 564.28 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,352.03 | 559.50 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 19,090.00 | 10,624.00 |
| Queries per second | 190,900.00 | 106,240.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.31 | 0.87 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.52 | 0.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.34 | 2.48 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.64 | 1.03 |
MySQL Write-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,974.00 | 10,496.00 |
| Queries per second | 39,740.00 | 104,960.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.87 | 0.62 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.51 | 0.95 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 38.67 | 2.57 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5 | 1.21 |
MySQL Read/Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,830.00 | 4,967.00 |
| Queries per second | 28,300.00 | 49,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 1.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.53 | 2.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 56.72 | 3.47 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.32 | 2.39 |
MySQL INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,647.00 | 17,471.00 |
| Queries per second | 46,470.00 | 174,710.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.61 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.15 | 0.57 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 28.58 | 2.14 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 0.8 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,249,592.00 | 2,424,342.00 |
| Queries per second | 22,495,920.00 | 24,243,420.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 207.34 | 208.42 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 645,161.00 | 243,477.00 |
| Queries per second | 6,451,610.00 | 2,434,770.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.26 | 0.75 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.05 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,546.00 | 11,659.00 |
| Queries per second | 85,460.00 | 116,590.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.17 | 0.86 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 172.57 | 3.08 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.58 | 1.1 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,562.00 | 10,594.00 |
| Queries per second | 115,620.00 | 105,940.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 0.36 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.86 | 0.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.07 | 3.17 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 1.21 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,711.00 | 16,016.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,110.00 | 160,160.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.73 | 0.39 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.12 | 0.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 30.41 | 1.92 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.96 | 0.86 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,393.00 | 17,709.00 |
| Queries per second | 53,930.00 | 177,090.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.37 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.85 | 0.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 39 | 1.8 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 0.74 |
MySQL DELETE
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 101,195.00 | 157,492.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,011,950.00 | 1,574,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 39.3 | 4.53 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.17 | 0.07 |
Redis
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 130,208.34 | 87,260.03 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 130,208.34 | 87,950.75 |
| SET per Second | 130,890.05 | 88,731.15 |
| GET per Second | 129,198.97 | 89,365.51 |
| INCR per Second | 128,534.70 | 88,809.95 |
| LPUSH per Second | 128,040.97 | 89,126.56 |
| RPUSH per Second | 126,582.27 | 89,365.51 |
| LPOP per Second | 124,688.28 | 90,334.23 |
| RPOP per Second | 127,226.46 | 90,579.71 |
| SADD per Second | 129,198.97 | 90,171.33 |
| HSET per Second | 133,511.34 | 89,686.10 |
| SPOP per Second | 139,275.77 | 89,365.51 |
| ZADD per Second | 130,039.02 | 90,415.91 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 129,701.68 | 90,090.09 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 55,524.71 | 67,114.09 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 28,785.26 | 37,821.48 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 18,942.98 | 26,595.74 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 17,038.68 | 23,009.66 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 108,225.10 | 90,826.52 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.25 | 0.30 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.25 | 0.29 |
| SET | 0.26 | 0.29 |
| GET | 0.26 | 0.29 |
| INCR | 0.26 | 0.29 |
| LPUSH | 0.26 | 0.29 |
| RPUSH | 0.27 | 0.29 |
| LPOP | 0.27 | 0.29 |
| RPOP | 0.27 | 0.29 |
| SADD | 0.26 | 0.29 |
| HSET | 0.26 | 0.29 |
| SPOP | 0.24 | 0.29 |
| ZADD | 0.26 | 0.29 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.26 | 0.29 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.66 | 0.40 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.27 | 0.68 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.95 | 0.96 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.16 | 1.20 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.34 | 0.29 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After analyzing the benchmark results, it's clear that the UpCloud instance provides slightly better performance in most metrics, especially in CPU-intensive and memory-bound tasks, with higher throughput in file I/O operations and significantly better latency in Redis commands. The Vultr instance, on the other hand, is more powerful in terms of raw CPU and RAM capacity, and offers robust performance in most Redis operations. The Vultr instance also provides higher throughput in memory operations. Overall, the UpCloud instance excels in tasks requiring high throughput and low latency, making it ideal for CPU-intensive workloads, while the Vultr instance, with its slightly higher CPU core count and robust memory throughput, is better suited for applications demanding higher raw computational power and memory bandwidth.
From the friendly human:
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