Instances›AWS EC2›r3›r3.xlarge
Compute
vCPUs4
Memory30.5 GiB
Mem / vCPU7.63 GiB
ProcessorXeon E5-2670 v2
Clock speed2.5 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
Type1 × 80 GB SSD
Bandwidth500 Mbps
Throughput62.5 MB/s
IOPS4,000
Networking
PerformanceModerate
Max ENIs4
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
r3.large2 vCPU · 15.25 GiB
r3.xlarge4 vCPU · 30.5 GiB
r3.2xlarge8 vCPU · 61 GiB
r3.4xlarge16 vCPU · 122 GiB
r3.8xlarge32 vCPU · 244 GiB
r3.xlarge

The r3.xlarge is a memory-optimized AWS EC2 instance: 4 vCPU and 30.5 GiB of memory, 7.63 GiB per vCPU. In the name, "r" stands for RAM, "3" is the generation and "xlarge" is the size within the r3 family. It runs on Intel Xeon E5-2670 v2 (Ivy Bridge) at 2.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in April 2014. AWS has since shipped r4, r5, r6i and r7i; r4.xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. Rackspace Spot's mh.vs1.large is a like-for-like substitute at 4 vCPU and 32 GiB, about 94% below the US East (N. Virginia) on-demand rate.

Match qualityNo local disk

r3.xlarge comes with 1 × 80 GB SSD attached to the machine. Rackspace Spot nodes use network storage only, so that disk does not come with it.

If you were using the local disk as fast scratch space — temporary files, a local cache, an index — you will need a persistent volume or object storage instead, and both are slower to read. If it was just extra space you never depended on, nothing changes.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$0.333$0.082$0.209$0.021
$0.312 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.061
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.021
Hong Kong$0.006
Sydney, Australia$0.399$0.119$0.298$0.006
$0.393 savings
London, UK$0.006
US West, San Jose$0.371$0.123$0.272$0.061
$0.310 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.061
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Large JVM heaps and application servers that hold state
  • ●OLAP and business intelligence query engines
  • ●Real-time analytics over hot datasets
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 30.5 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 1 × 80 GB of local SSD scratch space
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. r4.xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 30.5 GiB of RAM
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●CPU-bound work. You are paying for memory this workload will not use.
  • ●More than 7.63 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
Stop overpaying AWS. This compute costs $243/mo on AWS vs $15/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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