r7iz.8xlarge

Analysis

The r7iz.8xlarge is a memory optimized instance in the r7iz series with 32 vCPUs and 256 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.8xlarge on AWS Graviton3 costs $1.71/hour, 42% less ($922 a month), though switching means rebuilding software for arm64. The other variants are the r7i.8xlarge at $2.12, the r7gd.8xlarge at $2.18 and the r7a.8xlarge at $2.43.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of Tokyo saves $479 a month per instance: $2.98/hour against $3.63/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 $2.98/hour in US East (N. Virginia), $2,172 a month if left running, which puts it mid-table for memory optimized types at the 68th percentile per vCPU ($0.0930 per vCPU-hour) and the 84th percentile per GiB ($0.0116 per GiB-hour).

Looking beyond its own line, 32 of 41 current types with 32 vCPUs and similar memory are cheaper. The cheapest of those is the r6g.8xlarge on AWS Graviton2 at $1.61/hour.

It is size 5 of 8 in the r7iz series. Stepping up to the r7iz.12xlarge gives 48 vCPUs and 384 GiB for $1,086 more a month. Dropping to the r7iz.4xlarge saves $1,086 a month.