EC2 Compute Optimized Instances

EC2 Compute Optimized Instances

EC2 Compute Optimized instances are perfect for compute bound applications which can make use of high-performance processors.

Instances that fall under this family are mostly good suited for companies aiming to benefit from the following options:

– Batch processing workloads

– Media transcoding

– High performance web servers

– High performance computing (HPC)

– Scientific modeling

– Dedicated gaming servers

– Ad server engines

– Machine learning inference

– Other compute intensive apps

This type of instance has the following categories of instances:

1. C5

They are optimized for the purpose of compute-intensive workloads. They supply a cost-effective high level of performance for a low cost/compute ratio.

Its Features Include the following:

• Choice of processors (size of the instance)
• C5 and C5d (12xlarge + 24xlarge + metal instance sizes)
• Custom 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Cascade Lake)
• Sustained all core Turbo frequency (3.6GHz)
• Single core turbo frequency (up to 3.9GHz)
• Other C5 instance sizes: on the second generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors or even the first generation Intel Xeon Platinum 8000 series (Skylake-SP) processor
• Sustained all core Turbo frequency (up to 3.4GHz)
• Single core turbo frequency (up to 3.5 GHz)
• 24xlarge instance size offering: 96 vCPUs & 192 GiB of memory & 3.6TB local NVMe-based SSDs (optional)
• Needs HVM AMIs which have drivers for ENA + NVMe
• C5d instances: local NVMe-based SSDs (physically attached to host server + provide block-level storage which gets coupled to lifetime of C5 instance)
• Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) gives C5 instances:

– Up to 25 Gbps of network bandwidth

– Up to 14 Gbps of dedicated bandwidth to Amazon EBS

• Powered through Nitro System (combines dedicated hardware + lightweight hypervisor)

Model	vCPU	Memory (GiB)	Instance Storage (GiB)	Network Bandwidth (Gbps)	EBS Bandwidth (Mbps)
c5.large	2	4	EBS-Only	Up to 10	Up to 4,750
c5.xlarge	4	8	EBS-Only	Up to 10	Up to 4,750
c5.2xlarge	8	16	EBS-Only	Up to 10	Up to 4,750
c5.4xlarge	16	32	EBS-Only	Up to 10	4,750
c5.9xlarge	36	72	EBS-Only	10	9,500
c5.12xlarge	48	96	EBS-Only	12	9,500
c5.18xlarge	72	144	EBS-Only	25	19,000
c5.24xlarge	96	192	EBS-Only	25	19,000
c5.metal	96	192	EBS-Only	25	19,000
c5d.large	2	4	1 x 50 NVMe SSD	Up to 10	Up to 4,750
c5d.xlarge	4	8	1 x 100 NVMe SSD	Up to 10	Up to 4,750
c5d.2xlarge	8	16	1 x 200 NVMe SSD	Up to 10	Up to 4,750
c5d.4xlarge	16	32	1 x 400 NVMe SSD	Up to 10	4,750
c5d.9xlarge	36	72	1 x 900 NVMe SSD	10	9,500
c5d.12xlarge	48	96	2 x 900 NVMe SSD	12	9,500
c5d.18xlarge	72	144	2 x 900 NVMe SSD	25	19,000
c5d.24xlarge	96	192	4 x 900 NVMe SSD	25	19,000
c5d.metal	96	192	4 x 900 NVMe SSD	25	19,000

C5 + C5d (12xlarge + 24xlarge + metal instances) include the below specs:

• Second generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Custom)
• Sustained all core Turbo frequency (3.6GHz)
• Single core turbo frequency (up to 3.9GHz)
• Intel AVX + Intel AVX2 + Intel AVX-512 + Intel Turbo + Intel DL Boost
• They are EBS Optimized
• They contain Enhanced Networking

Every one of the other C5 + C5d instances contain the below specs:

• Second generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Custom)
• Sustained all core Turbo frequency (3.6GHz)
• Single core turbo frequency (up to 3.9GHz)
• First generation Intel Xeon Platinum 8000 series processor
• Sustained all core Turbo frequency (up to 3.4GHz)
• Single core turbo frequency (up to 3.5 GHz)
• Intel AVX + Intel AVX2 + Intel AVX-512 + Intel Turbo
• They are EBS Optimized
• They have Enhanced Networking

Used in the following Cases:

– High performance web servers

– Scientific modelling

– Batch processing

– Distributed analytics

– High-performance computing (HPC)

– Machine/deep learning inference

– Ad serving

– Highly scalable multiplayer gaming

– Video encoding.

2. C5n

Those instances are perfect for those companies that require high compute applications that can take advantage of improved network throughput and packet rate performance, for example:

– High Performance Computing (HPC) workloads

– Data lakes

– Network appliances

– Firewalls

– Routers

C5n instances offer:

– Up to 100 Gbps (network bandwidth)

– Increased memory in comparison with C5 instances

– C5n.18xlarge instances: supportive of Elastic Fabric Adapter which is known as a network interface for EC2 instances. It gives customers the possibility to run apps in need of great levels of inter-node communications, such as High Performance Computing apps through the use of Message Passing Interface (at scale on AWS).

Its Features Include:

• “Intel Xeon Platinum” processors of 3.0 GHz (Intel Advanced Vector Extension 512 (AVX-512) instruction set)
• Launches every core at 3.5 GHz through the help of Intel Turbo Boost Technology
• Greater instance size (c5n.18xlarge) which provides 72 vCPUs & 192 GiB of memory
• Needs HVM AMIs that have drivers for both ENA & NVMe
• Network bandwidth raises to a whole of 100 Gbps to provide higher performance for network intensive apps
• Has EFA support (for c5n.18xlarge instances)
• In comparison with C5 instances, it provides a 33% increased memory footprint
• Powered through Nitro System (combines dedicated hardware + lightweight hypervisor)

Model	vCPU	Memory (GiB)	Instance Storage (GiB)	Network Bandwidth (Gbps)	EBS Bandwidth (Mbps)
c5n.large	2	5.25	EBS-Only	Up to 25	Up to 4,750
c5n.xlarge	4	10.5	EBS-Only	Up to 25	Up to 4,750
c5n.2xlarge	8	21	EBS-Only	Up to 25	Up to 4,750
c5n.4xlarge	16	42	EBS-Only	Up to 25	4,750
c5n.9xlarge	36	96	EBS-Only	50	9,500
c5n.18xlarge	72	192	EBS-Only	100	19,000
c5n.metal	72	192	EBS-Only	100	19,000

Every instance has the below specs:

• Intel Xeon Platinum Processor (3.0 GHz)
• Intel AVX + Intel AVX2 + Intel AVX-512 + Intel Turbo
• It is EBS Optimized
• It has Enhanced Networking

Used for the following Cases:

– High performance web servers

– Scientific modeling

– Batch processing

– Distributed analytics

– High-performance computing (HPC)

– Machine/deep learning inference

– Ad serving

– Highly scalable multiplayer gaming

– Video encoding

3. C4

These C4 instances are designed especially for compute-intensive workloads. They can deliver extremely cost-effective and greatly high performance for a low price/compute ratio.

Its Features Include:

• Great frequency “Intel Xeon E5-2666 v3” (Haswell) processors that are designed especially for EC2
• EBS-optimized for higher storage performance for no extra price (by default)
• Greater networking performance + Enhanced Networking that supports Intel 82599 VF
• It needs VPC + EBS + 64-bit HVM AMIs

Instance	vCPU*	Mem (GiB)	Storage	Dedicated EBS Bandwidth (Mbps)	Network Performance
c4.large	2	3.75	EBS-Only	500	Moderate
c4.xlarge	4	7.5	EBS-Only	750	High
c4.2xlarge	8	15	EBS-Only	1,000	High
c4.4xlarge	16	30	EBS-Only	2,000	High
c4.8xlarge	36	60	EBS-Only	4,000	10 Gigabit

Every instance has the below specs:

• Intel Xeon E5-2666 v3 Processor (2.9 GHz)
• Intel AVX + Intel AVX2 + Intel Turbo
• It is EBS Optimized
• It has Enhanced Networking

Used in the following Cases:

– High performance front-end fleets

– Web-servers

-Batch processing

– Distributed analytics

– High performance science & engineering applications

– Ad serving

– MMO gaming

– Video-encoding

Overall Notes:

Every vCPU is known to be a thread of either one of the following:

– Intel Xeon core

-AMD EPYC core (except for T2 + m3.medium)

AVX + AVX2 + Enhanced Networking: available on instances that are launched with HVM AMIs.

A custom number of vCPUs may be specified upon the launching of this specific instance type.

M4 instances can be launched on: Intel Xeon E5-2686 v4 (Broadwell) processor.

See Also

EC2 Accelerated Computing Instances