Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up brand new instance from Vultr to run some benchmarks on. Each instance was spun up with 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
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:00:52 GMT | Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-124-generic | 6.8.0-124-generic |
| MySQL Version | 8.0.46-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 | 8.0.46-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 |
| Redis Version | 7.0.15 | 7.0.15 |
| Location | Newark, NJ | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | $5.00 | $20.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 1 | 4 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 25 | 80 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 1 | 3 |
CPU
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS) | Intel Xeon Processor (Skylake, IBRS) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,394.45 | 2,593.91 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 16,384.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,788.90 | 5,187.81 |
| Events per Second | 828.09 | 1,022.39 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.14 | 0.88 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.21 | 0.98 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4 | 1.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.37 | 1.21 |
Memory
Memory Read
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,001,138.82 | 3,523,809.57 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,907.36 | 3,441.22 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.22 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,734,918.86 | 3,568,203.77 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,647.38 | 3,484.57 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.94 | 1.02 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,134.38 | 2,972.63 |
| Writes per Second | 1,422.92 | 1,981.75 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 4,565.03 | 6,347.81 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 33.35 | 46.45 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 22.23 | 30.96 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.12 | 0.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.47 | 17.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.33 | 0.33 |
Mutex
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2,155.76 | 899.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2,176.45 | 935.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2,188.51 | 969.92 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2,198.52 | 977.74 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,055.00 | 3,779.00 |
| Queries per second | 50,550.00 | 37,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 1.84 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.98 | 2.64 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.2 | 24.55 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.35 | 3.82 |
MySQL Write-only
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,198.00 | 4,044.00 |
| Queries per second | 41,980.00 | 40,440.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.56 | 1.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.38 | 2.47 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 17.49 | 13.46 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 3.3 |
MySQL Read/Write
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,086.00 | 1,798.00 |
| Queries per second | 20,860.00 | 17,980.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 3.69 | 3.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.79 | 5.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13 | 27.33 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.99 | 6.91 |
MySQL INSERT
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,086.00 | 6,405.00 |
| Queries per second | 70,860.00 | 64,050.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 0.99 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.41 | 1.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 20.85 | 15.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2 | 2.03 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 898,571.00 | 865,805.00 |
| Queries per second | 8,985,710.00 | 8,658,050.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 623.08 | 538.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 111,879.00 | 126,618.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,118,790.00 | 1,266,180.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.4 | 2.46 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.11 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,660.00 | 3,674.00 |
| Queries per second | 46,600.00 | 36,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.71 | 1.07 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.14 | 2.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.58 | 6.45 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.07 | 3.55 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,664.00 | 2,728.00 |
| Queries per second | 56,640.00 | 27,280.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.67 | 1.3 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 3.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.98 | 11.85 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.43 | 5 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,308.00 | 5,438.00 |
| Queries per second | 73,080.00 | 54,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.8 | 0.99 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.37 | 1.84 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.49 | 13.86 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.86 | 2.71 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,691.00 | 6,370.00 |
| Queries per second | 76,910.00 | 63,700.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.93 | 1.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.3 | 1.57 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 23.67 | 8.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.67 | 2.07 |
MySQL DELETE
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 47,984.00 | 51,180.00 |
| Queries per second | 479,840.00 | 511,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.21 | 0.19 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.17 | 6.11 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.25 | 1.39 |
Redis
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 34,036.76 | 49,677.10 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 35,574.53 | 45,372.05 |
| SET per Second | 34,674.06 | 45,392.64 |
| GET per Second | 34,530.39 | 53,163.21 |
| INCR per Second | 34,211.43 | 48,732.94 |
| LPUSH per Second | 34,106.41 | 50,327.12 |
| RPUSH per Second | 33,400.13 | 48,285.85 |
| LPOP per Second | 33,590.86 | 48,355.90 |
| RPOP per Second | 34,782.61 | 51,413.88 |
| SADD per Second | 34,590.11 | 48,332.53 |
| HSET per Second | 29,647.20 | 49,285.36 |
| SPOP per Second | 34,662.05 | 48,332.53 |
| ZADD per Second | 33,955.86 | 51,229.51 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 34,916.20 | 45,085.66 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 23,020.26 | 27,122.32 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 12,341.11 | 12,442.45 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 8,499.07 | 7,930.21 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 7,215.53 | 6,902.74 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 26,267.40 | 45,146.73 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.95 | 0.53 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.91 | 0.57 |
| SET | 0.94 | 0.57 |
| GET | 0.94 | 0.49 |
| INCR | 0.95 | 0.53 |
| LPUSH | 0.96 | 0.51 |
| RPUSH | 0.97 | 0.54 |
| LPOP | 0.97 | 0.54 |
| RPOP | 0.94 | 0.52 |
| SADD | 0.94 | 0.55 |
| HSET | 1.08 | 0.54 |
| SPOP | 0.93 | 0.54 |
| ZADD | 0.96 | 0.52 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.93 | 0.57 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.44 | 1.02 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 2.77 | 2.29 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 4.05 | 3.27 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 4.69 | 3.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 1.26 | 0.78 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After a thorough analysis of the benchmark results from both Vultr instances, it's evident that the 4 GB, 2-core configuration outperforms the 1 GB, 1-core instance in most metrics, particularly in CPU-intensive tasks and Redis operations where significant improvements in requests per second and reduced latencies are observed. The higher memory and CPU resources, along with faster I/O operations, make this instance ideal for applications requiring robust computation, heavy database interactions, or extensive data processing. Conversely, the 1 GB, 1-core instance may be more suitable for lightweight applications, smaller databases, or cost-sensitive use cases where lower resource demands and budget constraints are a priority.
From the friendly human:
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