Instances›AWS EC2›r5n›r5n.metal
Compute
vCPUs96
Memory768 GiB
Mem / vCPU8.00 GiB
ProcessorXeon Platinum 8259
Clock speed2.5 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth19,000 Mbps
Throughput2375 MB/s
IOPS80,000
Networking
Performance100 Gigabit
Max ENIs15
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
r5n.large2 vCPU · 16 GiB
r5n.xlarge4 vCPU · 32 GiB
r5n.2xlarge8 vCPU · 64 GiB
r5n.4xlarge16 vCPU · 128 GiB
r5n.8xlarge32 vCPU · 256 GiB
r5n.12xlarge48 vCPU · 384 GiB
r5n.16xlarge64 vCPU · 512 GiB
r5n.24xlarge96 vCPU · 768 GiB
r5n.metal96 vCPU · 768 GiB
r5n.metal

r5n.metal is AWS's memory-optimized EC2 size at 96 vCPU and 768 GiB. In the name, "r" stands for RAM, "5" is the generation, "n" marks enhanced networking and "metal" is the size within the r5n family. It runs on Intel Xeon Platinum 8259 (Cascade Lake) at 2.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in February 2021. AWS has since shipped r6i, r7i, r8i and r9g; r6i.metal is the direct replacement at this size. The closest Spot shape is mh.vs1.2xlarge at 16 vCPU, so this instance maps to 6 of them — 96 vCPU and 768 GiB across the fleet, $7.15/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.126/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 qualityVirtualised, not bare metal

r5n.metal is a full physical server — no virtualisation layer in the way, direct access to the hardware, and a socket count that licensing can verify.

Rackspace Spot no longer sells bare metal; everything in the catalog is a virtual machine. You get the same cores and memory (6 × mh.vs1.2xlarge, 96 vCPU, 768 GiB), but not the dedicated hardware. If you picked r5n.metal because you needed the real machine — nested virtualisation, per-socket licensing, low-level profiling — this is not a replacement at any price. If you picked it because it is the biggest r5n, it is the same compute for a lot less.

Runs as a fleetNo single Spot node has 96 vCPU; the largest comparable one has 16. So this runs as 6 nodes. That works if your workload already spreads across machines, and doesn't if one process needs all the cores together.
Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$7.152$0.763$4.506$2.897$0.126
$7.026 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.126
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.786
Hong Kong$9.696$6.098$3.914$0.126
$9.570 savings
Sydney, Australia$8.688$2.737$5.473$3.519$0.126
$8.562 savings
London, UK$8.400$1.303$5.318$3.551$0.786
$7.614 savings
US West, San Jose$8.112$1.125$5.119$3.318$0.012
$8.100 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$1.452
When to use it
Good for
  • ●OLAP and business intelligence query engines
  • ●Real-time analytics over hot datasets
  • ●Database instances that keep the working set in RAM
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 768 GiB of RAM
  • ●Parallel work that can occupy 96 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 100 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 6 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. r6i.metal is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 768 GiB of RAM
  • ●You need dedicated hardware. Rackspace Spot sells virtualised compute only.
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●CPU-bound work. You are paying for memory this workload will not use.
  • ●More than 8.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
$5,221/mo on AWS on-demand against $92/mo on Rackspace Spot for the 6-node equivalent — market-priced, not list-priced.
  • 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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