Amazon EC2 C7i and C7i-flex instances
Utilizing 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, compute-optimized instances
The C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) are next-generation compute-optimized instances with a 2:1 RAM to vCPU ratio. They are powered by specialized 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code called Sapphire Rapids).
These unique processor-powered EC2 instances are exclusive to AWS and deliver up to 15% greater performance than equivalent Intel processors used by other cloud providers. They are the best performing comparable Intel processors in the cloud.
For most compute-intensive tasks, the simplest approach to obtain price performance gains is with C7i-flex instances. When compared to C6i instances, they provide price performance that is up to 19% better. C7i-flex instances are an excellent initial option for applications that don’t use all of the computing resources because they come in the most common sizes, ranging from large to 8xlarge, with up to 32 vCPUs and 64 GiB of RAM.
The most popular compute-intensive workloads, such as web and application servers, databases, caches, Apache Kafka, and Elasticsearch, may be effortlessly operated on C7i-flex instances.
For workloads requiring bigger instance sizes (up to 192 vCPUs and 384 GiB memory) or persistently high CPU utilization, EC2 C7i instances offer advantages in terms of pricing and performance. Batch processing, distributed analytics, high performance computing (HPC), ad serving, highly scalable multiplayer gaming, and video encoding are among the workloads that EC2 C7i instances excel at. In comparison to C6i instances, C7i instances offer up to 15% better pricing performance.
Utilizing new Amazon EC2 Flex instances, reduce costs
A lot of users don’t use an EC2 instance’s entire compute capacity. As a result, those clients are paying for services that they do not require. For most compute-intensive tasks, the simplest option to obtain enhanced pricing performance is with Amazon EC2 C7i-flex instances. The majority of the time, Amazon EC2 Flex instances can scale up to full computing performance, making optimal use of compute resources. The goal of flex instances is to maximize both performance and cost.
Advantages
Reduced expenses
For most compute-intensive tasks, the simplest approach to optimize costs is with C7i-flex instances. When compared to C6i instances, they provide price performance that is up to 19% better. In terms of price performance, EC2 C7i instances outperform C6i instances by 15%. Additional larger instance sizes offered by C7i allow for consolidation and the execution of workloads that are more demanding and greater in size.
Adaptability and discretion
The most extensive and varied range of EC2 instances available on AWS is now enhanced by C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances. Large to 8xlarge are the five most popular sizes offered by C7i-flex. Eleven sizes (two bare-metal sizes, c7i.metal-24xl and c7i.metal-48xl) with different vCPU, memory, networking, and storage capacities are offered by C7i.
Optimum efficiency using resources
Built on the AWS Nitro System, which consists of a lightweight hypervisor combined with specialized hardware, are the C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances. Nitro improves overall performance and security by providing your instances with nearly all of the host hardware’s computation and memory resources. When it comes to workloads, EC2 instances based on the Nitro System can give throughput performance that is over 15% higher than other cloud providers using the same CPU.
Features
Driven by Intel Xeon Scalable Processors of the 4th Generation
Custom 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors with an all-core turbo frequency of 3.2 GHz (max core turbo frequency of 3.8 GHz) power the C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances. These specialized CPUs provide the best performance among similar Intel processors and are exclusively offered on AWS. Support for Intel Total Memory Encryption (TME) always-on memory encryption is included in both cases.
Superior performance interfaces
Compared to C6i instances, DDR5 memory, which is used by C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances, offers more bandwidth. Up to 12.5 Gbps of networking bandwidth and up to 10 Gbps of bandwidth for Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) are supported by C7i-flex instances.
Up to 50 Gbps of networking bandwidth and 40 Gbps of bandwidth to Amazon EBS are supported by EC2 C7i instances. Furthermore, EC2 C7i allows you to attach up to 128 EBS volumes to an instance, as opposed to C6i’s limit of 28 EBS volume attachments. Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) in the metal-48xl and 48xlarge sizes is also supported by EC2 C7i instances.
Fresh accelerators
There are four new integrated accelerators in Intel Xeon Scalable processors of the 4th generation. For applications like CPU-based machine learning, Advance Matrix Extensions (AMX), which are available on both C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances, speed up matrix multiplication operations.
Available exclusively on EC2 C7i bare metal sizes, Data Streaming Accelerator (DSA), In-Memory Analytics Accelerator (IAA), and Quick Assist Technology (QAT) facilitate effective data offloading and acceleration, enhancing performance for databases, encryption and compression, and queue management workloads.
Constructed Using the Nitro Framework
The AWS Nitro System may be put together in a variety of ways, giving AWS the flexibility to quickly and flexibly construct EC2 instance types with an ever-expanding range of networking, storage, compute, and memory capabilities. The overall performance of the system is improved by Nitro Cards, which offload and speed I/O for functions.
The great majority of apps do not constantly operate at 100% CPU utilization. Consider a web application as an example. It seldom ever uses a server’s compute at full capacity, usually alternating between times of high and low demand.
Using the Amazon EC2 M7i-flex instances, first introduced in August, is one simple and affordable approach to run such workloads. With the extra benefit of providing you with better price/performance if you don’t always need full compute capacity, these less expensive versions of the Amazon EC2 M7i instances offer the same next-generation specs for general purpose computing in the most popular sizes. They are therefore an excellent first option if you want to lower your operating costs without sacrificing performance standards.
Because customers responded so favourably to this flexibility, they are now providing Amazon EC2 C7i-flex instances, which offer comparable price/performance benefits as well as lower prices for applications that require a lot of computation. These are less expensive versions of the Amazon EC2 C7i instances that provide a minimum CPU performance with a 95% capacity to scale up to the maximum compute performance.
C7i-flex examples
With five of the most popular sizes available, ranging from large to 8xlarge, C7i-flex delivers a 19% higher price-performance ratio than Amazon EC2 C6i instances.
| Instance name | vCPU | Memory (GiB) | Instance storage (GB) | Network bandwidth (Gbps) | EBS bandwidth (Gbps) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c7i-flex.large | 2 | 4 | EBS-only | up to 12.5 | up to 10 |
| c7i-flex.xlarge | 4 | 8 | EBS-only | up to 12.5 | up to 10 |
| c7i-flex.2xlarge | 8 | 16 | EBS-only | up to 12.5 | up to 10 |
| c7i-flex.4xlarge | 16 | 32 | EBS-only | up to 12.5 | up to 10 |
| c7i-flex.8xlarge | 32 | 64 | EBS-only | up to 12.5 | up to 10 |
Which is better, C7i-flex or C7i?
The compute-optimized C7i-flex and C7i instances are driven by exclusive 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors that are exclusively offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Compared to comparable x86-based Intel CPUs utilized by other cloud providers, they offer up to 15% higher performance.
They are perfect for running applications including web and application servers, databases, caches, Apache Kafka, and Elasticsearch. They both use DDR5 memory and have a 2:1 memory to vCPU ratio.
Why then would you choose to use one over the other? Here are three factors to take into account while choosing the best option for you.
Pattern of usage
When you don’t need to use all of the computational resources, EC2 flex instances are an excellent choice.
An efficient use of compute resources can result in five percent lower pricing and five percent better price performance. For compute-intensive workloads, C7i-flex instances should be the first option because they are generally a fantastic fit for the majority of applications.
Instead, you ought to use EC2 C7i instances if your application necessitates constant high CPU consumption. Workloads include batch processing, distributed analytics, ad serving, high performance computing (HPC), highly scalable multiplayer gaming, and video encoding are perhaps better suited for them.
Sizes of instances
C7i-flex instances come in the most popular sizes, up to a maximum of 8xlarge, and are utilized by most workloads.
The huge C7i instances, which come in 12xlarge, 16xlarge, 24xlarge, 48xlarge, and two bare metal alternatives with metal-24xl and metal-48xl sizes, are worth looking into if you require greater specs.
Bandwidth on a network
Depending on your needs, you might need to use one of the larger C7i instances because larger capacities also offer higher network and Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) bandwidths. With a network bandwidth of up to 12.5 Gbps and an Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) capacity of up to 10 Gbps, C7i-flex instances should be adequate for the majority of workloads.
Knowledgeable Regions: To find out whether C7i-flex instances are offered in the regions of your choice, see AWS Services by Region.
Purchase options: On-Demand, Savings Plan, Reserved Instance, and Spot form are available for C7i-Flex and EC2 C7i instances. Additionally, dedicated hosts and dedicated instances for C7i are offered.
