Instances›AWS EC2›c6gd›c6gd.8xlarge
Compute
vCPUs32
Memory64 GiB
Mem / vCPU2.00 GiB
ProcessorGraviton2 Processor
Clock speed2.5 GHz
Architecturearm64
Storage
Type1 × 1,900 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth9,500 Mbps
Throughput1187.5 MB/s
IOPS40,000
Networking
Performance12 Gigabit
Max ENIs8
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
c6gd.medium1 vCPU · 2 GiB
c6gd.large2 vCPU · 4 GiB
c6gd.xlarge4 vCPU · 8 GiB
c6gd.2xlarge8 vCPU · 16 GiB
c6gd.4xlarge16 vCPU · 32 GiB
c6gd.8xlarge32 vCPU · 64 GiB
c6gd.12xlarge48 vCPU · 96 GiB
c6gd.16xlarge64 vCPU · 128 GiB
c6gd.metal64 vCPU · 128 GiB
c6gd.8xlarge

c6gd.8xlarge is AWS's compute-optimized EC2 size at 32 vCPU and 64 GiB. In the name, "c" stands for compute, "6" is the generation, "gd" marks AWS Graviton (ARM) processors and local NVMe storage and "8xlarge" is the size within the c6gd family. It runs on AWS Graviton2 Processor at 2.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in July 2020. AWS has since shipped c7gd, c8gd and c9gd; c7gd.8xlarge is the direct replacement at this size, scoring 819,882 CoreMark/s against this instance's 625,815 — roughly 31% more throughput for the same vCPU count. The closest Spot shape is ch.vs1.2xlarge at 16 vCPU, so this instance maps to 2 of them — 32 vCPU and 64 GiB across the fleet, about 93% below the US East (N. Virginia) on-demand rate. Spot delivers compute as managed Kubernetes, so a node pool of that size is the native shape of the answer rather than a workaround — provided the workload scales horizontally.

Match qualityScale-out match

c6gd.8xlarge gives you 32 vCPU and 64 GiB in a single machine. The largest comparable Spot node, ch.vs1.2xlarge, is 16 vCPU and 32 GiB, so the equivalent here is 2 nodes rather than one.

Spot runs as managed Kubernetes, so a 2-node pool is the normal way to run things rather than a workaround. If your workload already sits behind a load balancer, a queue or a scheduler, it spreads across them without changes. If it needs all 32 cores and 64 GiB in one process, it does not.

x86_64 onlyc6gd.8xlarge is Graviton (arm64) and Rackspace Spot has no arm64 nodes, so you'd be moving to x86. You'll need x86 builds of your images, and per-core speed differs between the chips — worth testing before you decide how many nodes to run.
No local diskc6gd.8xlarge comes with 1 × 1,900 GB NVMe SSD attached to the machine. Spot nodes use network storage only, so that disk doesn't come with it. If you were using it as fast scratch space, you'd move to a persistent volume or object storage, which are slower to read.
Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$1.229$0.346$0.774$0.531$0.082
$1.147 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.022
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.222
Hong Kong$0.082
Sydney, Australia$1.616$0.524$1.008$0.691$0.082
$1.534 savings
London, UK$1.472$0.234$0.927$0.636$0.262
$1.210 savings
US West, San Jose$1.536$0.419$0.975$0.657$0.004
$1.532 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.244
US East, N. Virginia 2$1.229$0.346$0.774$0.531$0.324
$0.905 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●High-traffic web and API serving
  • ●Scientific modelling and simulation
  • ●Ad serving and real-time bidding
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 64 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 1 × 1,900 GB of local NVMe scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 12 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 2 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. c7gd.8xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 64 GiB of RAM
  • ●You cannot rebuild x86-only binaries or vendor images for aarch64
  • ●More than 2.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 32 vCPU would sit idle.
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
Stop overpaying AWS. This compute costs $897/mo on AWS vs $60/mo on Rackspace Spot.
  • Spot sells spare capacity at market prices. It is the cheapest compute on the internet.
  • Prices are set by supply and demand. You pay what the market decides.
  • Compute is delivered as fully managed Kubernetes. All infrastructure is taken care of.
  • Egress costs $0.01/GB after the free allowance. AWS charges $0.09/GB.
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