r7iz.12xlarge

Analysis

The r7iz.12xlarge is a memory optimized instance in the r7iz series with 48 vCPUs and 384 GiB of memory on Intel Xeon Scalable (Sapphire Rapids) (up to 3.9 GHz), which makes it memory-heavy at 8 GiB of memory per vCPU.

Within the same generation and size, the r7g.12xlarge on AWS Graviton3 costs $2.57/hour, 42% less ($1,382 a month), though switching means rebuilding software for arm64. The other variants are the r7i.12xlarge at $3.18, the r7gd.12xlarge at $3.27 and the r7a.12xlarge at $3.65.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of Tokyo saves $718 a month per instance: $4.46/hour against $5.45/hour, a 22% spread. It is not offered in Canada Central, São Paulo, London, Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney, so plan around that if you need a presence there.

On demand it costs $4.46/hour in US East (N. Virginia), $3,259 a month if left running, which puts it mid-table for memory optimized types at the 70th percentile per vCPU ($0.0930 per vCPU-hour) and the 86th percentile per GiB ($0.0116 per GiB-hour).

Looking beyond its own line, 29 of 40 current types with 48 vCPUs and similar memory are cheaper. The cheapest of those is the r6g.12xlarge on AWS Graviton2 at $2.42/hour.

It is size 6 of 8 in the r7iz series. Stepping up to the r7iz.16xlarge gives 64 vCPUs and 512 GiB for $1,086 more a month. Dropping to the r7iz.8xlarge saves $1,086 a month.