EC2 Compute Optimized Instances - c4

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

EC2 Compute Optimized Instances - c4

EC2 Compute Optimized Instances – 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