UpCloud Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) vs. Vultr High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores)
Welcome to another round of the VPS Showdown. 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 the New York area (or close to it). Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:00:52 GMT | Sun, 31 May 2026 13:00:55 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-111-generic | 6.8.0-117-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 | €26.00 | $18.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 4 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 80 | 80 |
| Storage Type | SSD | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 4 | 3 |
CPU
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor | Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS, no TSX) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 3,295.46 | 3,791.98 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 6,590.91 | 7,583.95 |
| Events per Second | 5,538.02 | 1,552.05 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.16 | 0.62 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.64 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.43 | 4.61 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.19 | 0.69 |
Memory
Memory Read
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 7,744,795.06 | 7,875,668.83 |
| Mebibytes per second | 7,563.28 | 7,691.08 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 7,915,291.33 | 7,729,812.11 |
| Mebibytes per second | 7,729.78 | 7,548.64 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 5,263.44 | 4,671.85 |
| Writes per Second | 3,508.96 | 3,114.56 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 11,231.28 | 9,976.90 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 82.24 | 73.00 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 54.83 | 48.67 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 30.56 | 2.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.19 | 0.17 |
Mutex
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 519.77 | 543.27 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 597.61 | 554.74 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 637.22 | 563.70 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 634.66 | 559.50 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 19,719.00 | 10,621.00 |
| Queries per second | 197,190.00 | 106,210.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.34 | 0.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 2.5 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.63 | 1.03 |
MySQL Write-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,768.00 | 10,229.00 |
| Queries per second | 67,680.00 | 102,290.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.63 | 0.64 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.48 | 0.98 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 50.87 | 2.08 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.14 | 1.23 |
MySQL Read/Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,707.00 | 5,072.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,070.00 | 50,720.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.08 | 1.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.12 | 1.97 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 37.62 | 3.94 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.97 | 2.39 |
MySQL INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,393.00 | 16,038.00 |
| Queries per second | 73,930.00 | 160,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.44 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.35 | 0.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 63.1 | 13.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.7 | 0.8 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,356,342.00 | 2,424,342.00 |
| Queries per second | 33,563,420.00 | 24,243,420.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 151.04 | 205.81 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 592,464.00 | 241,313.00 |
| Queries per second | 5,924,640.00 | 2,413,130.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.21 | 0.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.05 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,203.00 | 12,080.00 |
| Queries per second | 122,030.00 | 120,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.25 | 0.21 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.83 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.39 | 3.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.21 | 1.04 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 16,394.00 | 10,527.00 |
| Queries per second | 163,940.00 | 105,270.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.61 | 0.95 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.5 | 3.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.97 | 1.23 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,134.00 | 17,123.00 |
| Queries per second | 81,340.00 | 171,230.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.45 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 0.58 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 30.98 | 2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.73 | 0.78 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,953.00 | 16,979.00 |
| Queries per second | 79,530.00 | 169,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.45 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.26 | 0.59 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 76.32 | 4.13 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.86 | 0.8 |
MySQL DELETE
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 245,730.00 | 156,424.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,457,300.00 | 1,564,240.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 112.01 | 4.87 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.07 |
Redis
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 210,084.03 | 88,652.48 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 251,889.16 | 89,605.73 |
| SET per Second | 258,397.94 | 90,171.33 |
| GET per Second | 239,808.16 | 90,579.71 |
| INCR per Second | 268,096.53 | 90,744.10 |
| LPUSH per Second | 267,379.66 | 90,497.73 |
| RPUSH per Second | 263,157.91 | 90,415.91 |
| LPOP per Second | 272,479.56 | 90,909.09 |
| RPOP per Second | 274,725.28 | 90,661.83 |
| SADD per Second | 269,541.78 | 90,252.70 |
| HSET per Second | 246,305.42 | 90,415.91 |
| SPOP per Second | 256,410.27 | 89,928.05 |
| ZADD per Second | 252,525.25 | 90,415.91 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 247,524.75 | 90,009.01 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 147,275.41 | 66,533.60 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 59,136.61 | 36,179.45 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 38,850.04 | 26,239.83 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 38,461.54 | 22,547.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 220,264.31 | 88,105.73 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| UpCloud – Balanced (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.16 | 0.30 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.11 | 0.29 |
| SET | 0.11 | 0.29 |
| GET | 0.11 | 0.29 |
| INCR | 0.12 | 0.28 |
| LPUSH | 0.13 | 0.29 |
| RPUSH | 0.10 | 0.29 |
| LPOP | 0.11 | 0.28 |
| RPOP | 0.10 | 0.28 |
| SADD | 0.10 | 0.29 |
| HSET | 0.11 | 0.29 |
| SPOP | 0.10 | 0.29 |
| ZADD | 0.11 | 0.29 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.11 | 0.29 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.24 | 0.39 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 0.48 | 0.71 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 0.67 | 0.97 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 0.72 | 1.14 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.18 | 0.30 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Upon comparing the benchmark results, it's evident that the UpCloud instance offers significantly better performance in various metrics, especially in CPU and memory operations, likely due to the higher-end AMD EPYC 9575F processor compared to the Intel Core Processor used in the Vultr instance. UpCloud excels in Redis operations, with higher requests per second and lower latency across all benchmarks, which suggests it handles I/O-heavy tasks more efficiently. File I/O, memory read and write operations, and MySQL benchmark tasks also favor the UpCloud instance, showcasing superior performance across the board. The Vultr instance, while still competent, particularly shines in terms of cost, which might make it appealing for budget-constrained projects that don't demand the highest performance. Ideal use cases for UpCloud include applications requiring high computational power, low latency, and heavy database interactions, whereas Vultr might be better suited for less demanding workloads or scenarios where cost is a primary concern.
From the friendly human:
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