Intel T3 vs AMD T3A benchmark in AWS
![](https://www.elasticourse.com/images/aws-intel-t3-vs-amd-t3a-benchmark_huabb09f177c595266021b1841e72e000e_81106_1500x0_resize_q80_h2_box_2.webp)
Wondering if you should go for an Intel or AMD CPU when deploying EC2 instances in AWS? Check this benchmark comparison between the two platforms.
I will be using sysbench
tool to benchmark Intel-based T3 instnce, and another AMD-based T3A instance.
AMD-based t3a.small specs:
- Powered by AMD EPYC 7571 @ 2.5 GHz.
- 2 vCPU.
- 2 GiB of RAM.
- 24 CPU credit/hr.
Intel-based t3.small specs:
- Powered by Intel Skylake E5 2686 v5 @ 3.1 GHz.
- 2 vCPU.
- 2 GiB of RAM.
- 24 CPU credit/hr.
Install the benchmark tool
curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/akopytov/sysbench/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt -y install sysbench
CPU benchmark
AMD
sysbench cpu --threads=2 run
total time: 10.0012s
total number of events: 13277
Intel
sysbench cpu --threads=2 run
total time: 10.0002s
total number of events: 16202
Memory benchmark
AMD
sysbench memory --threads=2 run
Total operations: 58636950 (5862640.73 per second)
57262.65 MiB transferred (5725.24 MiB/sec)
Intel
sysbench memory --threads=2 run
Total operations: 55829314 (5579740.79 per second)
54520.81 MiB transferred (5448.97 MiB/sec)
Disk I/O benchmark
AMD
dd bs=16k count=102400 oflag=direct if=/dev/zero of=test_data
102400+0 records in
102400+0 records out
1677721600 bytes (1.7 GB, 1.6 GiB) copied, 83.592 s, 20.1 MB/s
dd bs=16K count=102400 iflag=direct if=test_data of=/dev/null
102400+0 records in
102400+0 records out
1677721600 bytes (1.7 GB, 1.6 GiB) copied, 54.1645 s, 31.0 MB/s
Intel
dd bs=16k count=102400 oflag=direct if=/dev/zero of=test_data
102400+0 records in
102400+0 records out
1677721600 bytes (1.7 GB, 1.6 GiB) copied, 71.3832 s, 23.5 MB/s
dd bs=16K count=102400 iflag=direct if=test_data of=/dev/null
102400+0 records in
102400+0 records out
1677721600 bytes (1.7 GB, 1.6 GiB) copied, 40.9778 s, 40.9 MB/s
Pricing (US-EAST-1)
AMD
- On-Demand hourly: 0.0188 USD/HR
- On-Demand monthly: $8.614
- 1 Yr Reserved: $8.614/month
- 3 Yr Reserved: $5.913/month
Intel
- On-Demand hourly: 0.0208 USD/Hr (1.1x more expensive than AMD)
- On-Demand monthly: $15.184
- 1 Yr Reserved: $9.490/month
- 3 Yr Reserved: $6.570/month
Summary
- Intel has better CPU performance and Disk I/O.
- AMD has better memory performance and marginal cost saving.
- After CPU credits are exhausted, the performance will degrade, unless you opt-in for the unlimited CPU credits for extra cost.
Futher reads:
- Inspired by LearnAWS
- t3.small on Vantage
- t3a.small on Vantage