x2iedn.8xlarge

Analysis

The x2iedn.8xlarge is a memory optimized instance in the x2iedn series with 32 vCPUs and 1024 GiB of memory on Intel Xeon Scalable (Icelake) (up to 3.5 GHz), which makes it very memory-heavy at 32 GiB of memory per vCPU.

Within the same generation and size, the x2gd.8xlarge on AWS Graviton2 costs $2.67/hour, 60% less ($2,918 a month), though switching means rebuilding software for arm64. The other variants are the x2iezn.8xlarge at $6.67.

Nothing else with 32 vCPUs and similar memory is cheaper: among 3 current same-shape types it has the lowest on-demand price.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of São Paulo saves $4,625 a month per instance: $6.67/hour against $13.01/hour, a 95% spread.

Per vCPU it is one of the dearer memory optimized types: 94% of the 385 current types in the family cost less than its $0.2084 per vCPU-hour. The premium mostly pays for the local NVMe disk. On demand it is $6.67/hour in US East (N. Virginia), or $4,868 for a 730-hour month.

It has local instance storage (1 x 950 GB NVMe SSD), which is fast but lost when the instance stops. Network: 25 Gigabit.

Reserving it for a year with no upfront payment cuts the Linux rate to $4.10/hour, which beats on demand once it runs more than 62% of the time; three years brings it to $2.14/hour, 68% below on demand. Windows Server roughly adds 22% to the bill at $8.14/hour, because the licence is charged per vCPU.