Instances›AWS EC2›r4›r4.16xlarge
Compute
vCPUs64
Memory488 GiB
Mem / vCPU7.63 GiB
ProcessorXeon E5-2686 v4
Clock speed2.3 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth14,000 Mbps
Throughput1750 MB/s
IOPS75,000
Networking
Performance25 Gigabit
Max ENIs15
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
r4.large2 vCPU · 15.25 GiB
r4.xlarge4 vCPU · 30.5 GiB
r4.2xlarge8 vCPU · 61 GiB
r4.4xlarge16 vCPU · 122 GiB
r4.8xlarge32 vCPU · 244 GiB
r4.16xlarge64 vCPU · 488 GiB
r4.16xlarge

r4.16xlarge is AWS's memory-optimized EC2 size at 64 vCPU and 488 GiB. In the name, "r" stands for RAM, "4" is the generation and "16xlarge" is the size within the r4 family. It runs on Intel Xeon E5-2686 v4 (Broadwell) at 2.3 GHz, and AWS introduced it in November 2016. AWS has since shipped r5, r6i, r7i and r8i; r5.16xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. The closest Spot shape is mh.vs1.2xlarge at 16 vCPU, so this instance maps to 4 of them — 64 vCPU and 512 GiB across the fleet, $4.26/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.084/hr on Rackspace Spot. 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

r4.16xlarge gives you 64 vCPU and 488 GiB in a single machine. The largest comparable Spot node, mh.vs1.2xlarge, is 16 vCPU and 128 GiB, so the equivalent here is 4 nodes rather than one.

Spot runs as managed Kubernetes, so a 4-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 64 cores and 488 GiB in one process, it does not.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$4.256$1.070$2.688$1.832$0.084
$4.172 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.084
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.524
Hong Kong$0.084
Sydney, Australia$5.107$1.294$3.226$2.212$0.084
$5.023 savings
London, UK$4.992$0.576$3.158$2.143$0.524
$4.468 savings
US West, San Jose$4.742$1.264$2.990$2.039$0.008
$4.734 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.968
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Real-time analytics over hot datasets
  • ●Database instances that keep the working set in RAM
  • ●Graph and search workloads with large indexes
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 488 GiB of RAM
  • ●Parallel work that can occupy 64 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 25 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 4 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. r5.16xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 488 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
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 64 vCPU would sit idle.
r4.16xlarge runs $3,107/mo on AWS on-demand. The 4-node equivalent on Rackspace Spot: $61/mo.
  • 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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