UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) vs. Vultr High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from UpCloud and Vultr and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Time to see who showed up today.
Overview
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Wed, 13 May 2026 07:00:52 GMT | Tue, 12 May 2026 15:00:51 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 | $48.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 50 | 180 |
| Storage Type | SSD | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 6 |
CPU
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor | Intel Xeon Processor (Cascadelake) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 3,295.48 | 2,893.17 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 6,590.95 | 5,786.33 |
| Events per Second | 5,025.21 | 1,059.70 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.83 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.2 | 0.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.35 | 3.58 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 1.14 |
Memory
Memory Read
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,932,400.60 | 4,705,509.24 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,793.36 | 4,595.22 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.22 | 2.22 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 6,706,599.41 | 4,676,375.38 |
| Mebibytes per second | 6,549.41 | 4,566.77 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.56 | 3.29 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,214.64 | 5,906.11 |
| Writes per Second | 2,143.03 | 3,937.40 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 6,864.71 | 12,611.69 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 50.23 | 92.28 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 33.48 | 61.52 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 20.14 | 82.27 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.31 | 0.14 |
Mutex
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,349.13 | 408.47 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,353.60 | 478.75 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,361.99 | 528.55 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,352.03 | 530.08 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 19,090.00 | 5,148.00 |
| Queries per second | 190,900.00 | 51,480.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.31 | 1.24 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.52 | 1.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.34 | 16.42 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.64 | 2.66 |
MySQL Write-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,974.00 | 4,781.00 |
| Queries per second | 39,740.00 | 47,810.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.87 | 1.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.51 | 2.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 38.67 | 9.33 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5 | 3.07 |
MySQL Read/Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,830.00 | 2,243.00 |
| Queries per second | 28,300.00 | 22,430.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 2.88 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.53 | 4.45 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 56.72 | 24.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.32 | 6.09 |
MySQL INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,647.00 | 6,381.00 |
| Queries per second | 46,470.00 | 63,810.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.61 | 0.61 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.15 | 1.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 28.58 | 29.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 2.52 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,249,592.00 | 1,346,717.00 |
| Queries per second | 22,495,920.00 | 13,467,170.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 207.34 | 473.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 645,161.00 | 151,547.00 |
| Queries per second | 6,451,610.00 | 1,515,470.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.07 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.26 | 3.93 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.12 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,546.00 | 5,574.00 |
| Queries per second | 85,460.00 | 55,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.17 | 1.79 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 172.57 | 7.01 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.58 | 2.57 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,562.00 | 6,208.00 |
| Queries per second | 115,620.00 | 62,080.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 0.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.86 | 1.61 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.07 | 36.71 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 2.39 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,711.00 | 8,467.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,110.00 | 84,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.73 | 0.51 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.12 | 1.18 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 30.41 | 30.73 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.96 | 1.73 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,393.00 | 8,471.00 |
| Queries per second | 53,930.00 | 84,710.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.52 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.85 | 1.18 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 39 | 61.8 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 1.73 |
MySQL DELETE
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 101,195.00 | 68,717.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,011,950.00 | 687,170.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.14 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 39.3 | 18.05 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.17 | 0.87 |
Redis
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 130,208.34 | 47,236.65 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 130,208.34 | 49,067.71 |
| SET per Second | 130,890.05 | 45,641.26 |
| GET per Second | 129,198.97 | 45,495.91 |
| INCR per Second | 128,534.70 | 50,709.94 |
| LPUSH per Second | 128,040.97 | 47,505.94 |
| RPUSH per Second | 126,582.27 | 52,938.06 |
| LPOP per Second | 124,688.28 | 50,735.67 |
| RPOP per Second | 127,226.46 | 52,083.34 |
| SADD per Second | 129,198.97 | 46,232.08 |
| HSET per Second | 133,511.34 | 49,701.79 |
| SPOP per Second | 139,275.77 | 48,638.13 |
| ZADD per Second | 130,039.02 | 50,968.40 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 129,701.68 | 50,175.61 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 55,524.71 | 28,050.49 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 28,785.26 | 18,871.49 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 18,942.98 | 14,110.34 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 17,038.68 | 10,855.41 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 108,225.10 | 46,274.87 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.25 | 0.56 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.25 | 0.56 |
| SET | 0.26 | 0.59 |
| GET | 0.26 | 0.59 |
| INCR | 0.26 | 0.52 |
| LPUSH | 0.26 | 0.56 |
| RPUSH | 0.27 | 0.50 |
| LPOP | 0.27 | 0.52 |
| RPOP | 0.27 | 0.52 |
| SADD | 0.26 | 0.61 |
| HSET | 0.26 | 0.53 |
| SPOP | 0.24 | 0.54 |
| ZADD | 0.26 | 0.53 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.26 | 0.53 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.66 | 1.06 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.27 | 1.68 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.95 | 2.30 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.16 | 2.96 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.34 | 0.65 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
When comparing the benchmark performance of the UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) instance with the Vultr High Performance Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) instance, we observe notable differences in throughput, latency, and resource utilization. The UpCloud instance provides higher raw performance in Redis operations, achieving up to 156,985.86 requests per second (rps) for PING_MBULK compared to Vultr's 59,136.61 rps, indicating better performance in memory-intensive tasks. The UpCloud server also excels in MySQL bulk insert operations and CPU-bound tasks, suggesting it is well-suited for applications requiring high memory throughput and low latency in database operations. In contrast, the Vultr instance shows superior CPU performance in terms of events per second and lower average latencies in many Redis commands, indicating better performance in CPU-bound operations, though with less RAM and fewer CPU cores, it is better for applications that are more CPU-intensive rather than memory-intensive. Therefore, the UpCloud instance is ideal for memory-heavy workloads, while the Vultr instance is better for CPU-intensive tasks.
From the friendly human:
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