Ever since AWS Graviton processors were introduced in 2018, Amazon is kept up with the latest developments and increased performance for clients’ cloud applications. After Graviton3-based instances proved successful, Amazon is presenting three new Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance families: compute optimised (C8gd), general purpose (M8gd), and memory optimised (R8gd) instances. These instances use AWS Graviton4 CPUs and NVMe SSD local storage. AWS Graviton3 instances outperform similar instances by 30% in computation, 40% in I/O-intensive database workloads, and 20% in real-time data analytics query results.
Built on AWS Graviton4, these instances execute containerised and micro-services-based apps in C/C++, Rust, Go, Java, Python,.NET Core, Node.js, Ruby, and PHP. Web applications, databases, and huge Java programs can all be outperformed by 30%, 40%, and 45% by AWS Graviton4 processors, respectively.
Technological advancements in the Graviton4 processor
Several significant technological developments enable the new Amazon EC2 instances with NVMe SSD local storage and AWS Graviton4 processors to deliver improved performance and additional features. Among these are:
- Improved compute performance: Compared to similar AWS Graviton3-based instances, the Graviton4-based instances offer compute performance that is up to 30% greater.
- Enhanced I/O performance for databases: They outperform their Graviton3 predecessors by 40% when it comes to I/O-intensive database workloads.
- Faster data analytics: These instances outperform similar Graviton3-based instances by up to 20% in terms of query returns for I/O-intensive real-time data analytics.
- Larger instance sizes: Up to 192 vCPUs, or three times more, are available in the new instances, which also provide higher instance sizes.
- Increased memory: They have up to 1.5 TiB more RAM than Graviton3-based versions.
- More local storage: Three times the local storage (up to 11.4TB of NVMe SSD storage) is available in the instances. Performance is greatly enhanced with the use of NVMe-based SSD local storage.
- Higher memory bandwidth: The bandwidth of the memory is 75% more than that of predecessors based on Graviton3.
- Larger L2 cache: Comparing the instances to the previous generation, the L2 cache is doubled.
- Increased network bandwidth: Their network capacity of up to 50 Gbps is a notable enhancement over instances based on Graviton3.
- Increased Amazon EBS bandwidth: Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) bandwidth of up to 40 Gbps is another improvement.
- Adjustable bandwidth allocation: EC2 instance bandwidth weighting option now allows users to change the network and Amazon EBS capacity on these instances by up to 25%, providing more flexibility.
- Bare metal options: Two bare metal sizes (metal-24xl and metal-48xl) are available, which facilitates direct access to physical resources and helps with certain workloads.
- AWS Nitro System: Built on top of the AWS Nitro System, these instances improve speed and security by shifting networking, storage, and CPU virtualisation tasks to specialised hardware and software.
- Enhanced security: All of the high-speed physical hardware interfaces on Graviton4 CPUs are completely encrypted, providing increased security.
- Optimized for various workloads: These instances, which are built on AWS Graviton4, are ideal for containerised and micro-services-based applications, as well as applications written in widely used programming languages, and storage-intensive Linux-based workloads. In particular, web applications, databases, and big Java programs are said to run quicker on Graviton4 processors than Graviton3 processors.
Together, these developments in the AWS Graviton4 processors and instance architecture allow for notable enhancements in performance and new features for a variety of cloud applications.
Instance specifications
These instances come in two bare metal sizes (metal-24xl and metal-48xl) to start workloads that need direct physical resource access and scale correctly. Furthermore, the AWS Nitro System, upon which these instances are based, transfers networking, storage, and CPU virtualisation tasks to specialised hardware and software in order to improve workload security and performance. Graviton4 processors also provide you with increased security because all of its high-speed physical hardware interfaces are completely encrypted.
In addition to two bare metal configurations per family, the instances come in ten sizes:
| Instance Name | vCPUs | Memory (GiB) (C/M/R) | Storage (GB) | Network Bandwidth (Gbps) | EBS Bandwidth (Gbps) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| medium | 1 | 2/4/8 | 1 x 59 | Up to 12.5 | Up to 10 |
| large | 2 | 4/8/16 | 1 x 118 | Up to 12.5 | Up to 10 |
| xlarge | 4 | 8/16/32 | 1 x 237 | Up to 12.5 | Up to 10 |
| 2xlarge | 8 | 16/32/64 | 1 x 474 | Up to 15 | Up to 10 |
| 4xlarge | 16 | 32/64/128 | 1 x 950 | Up to 15 | Up to 10 |
| 8xlarge | 32 | 64/128/256 | 1 x 1900 | 15 | 10 |
| 12xlarge | 48 | 96/192/384 | 3 x 950 | 22.5 | 15 |
| 16xlarge | 64 | 128/256/512 | 2 x 1900 | 30 | 20 |
| 24xlarge | 96 | 192/384/768 | 3 x 1900 | 40 | 30 |
| 48xlarge | 192 | 384/768/1536 | 6 x 1900 | 50 | 40 |
| metal-24xl | 96 | 192/384/768 | 3 x 1900 | 40 | 30 |
| metal-48xl | 192 | 384/768/1536 | 6 x 1900 | 50 | 40 |
Availability and cost
Examples of M8gd, C8gd, and R8gd are now accessible in the US West (Oregon) and US East (N. Virginia, Ohio) Regions. These instances are available for purchase as dedicated instances, dedicated hosts, savings plans, on-demand instances, and spot instances.
Get started today
By using the AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), or AWS SDKs, you may start M8gd, C8gd, and R8gd instances in the supported regions right now. You may start moving your apps to Graviton instance types by looking through the Graviton resources collection.
