Intel T3 vs AMD T3A benchmark in AWS

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 instance, 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

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curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/akopytov/sysbench/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt -y install sysbench

AMD CPU benchmark

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sysbench cpu --threads=2 run

total time:                          10.0012s
total number of events:              13277

Intel CPU benchmark

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sysbench cpu --threads=2 run

total time:                          10.0002s
total number of events:              16202

AMD Memory benchmark

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sysbench memory --threads=2 run

Total operations: 58636950 (5862640.73 per second)
57262.65 MiB transferred (5725.24 MiB/sec)

Intel Memory benchmark

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sysbench memory --threads=2 run

Total operations: 55829314 (5579740.79 per second)
54520.81 MiB transferred (5448.97 MiB/sec)

AMD Disk I/O benchmark

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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 Disk I/O benchmark

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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

AMD Pricing

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 Pricing

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.