Instances›AWS EC2›r8gd›r8gd.metal-48xl
Compute
vCPUs192
Memory1536 GiB
Mem / vCPU8.00 GiB
ProcessorGraviton4 Processor
Clock speed2.7 GHz
Architecturearm64
Storage
Type6 × 1,900 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth40,000 Mbps
Throughput5000 MB/s
IOPS240,000
Networking
Performance50 Gigabit
Max ENIs15
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
r8gd.medium1 vCPU · 8 GiB
r8gd.large2 vCPU · 16 GiB
r8gd.xlarge4 vCPU · 32 GiB
r8gd.2xlarge8 vCPU · 64 GiB
r8gd.4xlarge16 vCPU · 128 GiB
r8gd.8xlarge32 vCPU · 256 GiB
r8gd.12xlarge48 vCPU · 384 GiB
r8gd.16xlarge64 vCPU · 512 GiB
r8gd.24xlarge96 vCPU · 768 GiB
r8gd.metal-24xl96 vCPU · 768 GiB
r8gd.48xlarge192 vCPU · 1536 GiB
r8gd.metal-48xl192 vCPU · 1536 GiB
r8gd.metal-48xl

The r8gd.metal-48xl pairs 192 vCPU with 1536 GiB of RAM, the 8.00 GiB-per-vCPU ratio that marks a memory-optimized instance. In the name, "r" stands for RAM, "8" is the generation, "gd" marks AWS Graviton (ARM) processors and local NVMe storage and "metal-48xl" is the size within the r8gd family. It runs on AWS Graviton4 Processor at 2.7 GHz, and AWS introduced it in April 2025. AWS has since shipped r9gd; r9gd.metal-48xl is the direct replacement at this size. Spot's node ladder tops out below this size, so r8gd.metal-48xl becomes 12 × mh.vs1.2xlarge (192 vCPU, 1536 GiB combined), $14.11/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.252/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

r8gd.metal-48xl 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 (12 × mh.vs1.2xlarge, 192 vCPU, 1,536 GiB), but not the dedicated hardware. If you picked r8gd.metal-48xl 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 r8gd, it is the same compute for a lot less.

Runs as a fleetNo single Spot node has 192 vCPU; the largest comparable one has 16. So this runs as 12 nodes. That works if your workload already spreads across machines, and doesn't if one process needs all the cores together.
x86_64 onlyr8gd.metal-48xl 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 diskr8gd.metal-48xl comes with 6 × 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$14.108$13.903$0.252
$13.856 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.252
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$1.572
Hong Kong$17.148$0.252
$16.896 savings
Sydney, Australia$16.235$2.393$0.252
$15.983 savings
London, UK$16.558$1.656$1.572
$14.986 savings
US West, San Jose$15.873$1.587$0.024
$15.849 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$2.904
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Database instances that keep the working set in RAM
  • ●Graph and search workloads with large indexes
  • ●In-memory caches such as Redis and Memcached
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 1536 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 6 × 1,900 GB of local NVMe scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 50 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 12 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●The working set needs more than 1536 GiB of RAM
  • ●You cannot rebuild x86-only binaries or vendor images for aarch64
  • ●You need dedicated hardware. Rackspace Spot sells virtualised compute only.
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 192 vCPU would sit idle.
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●CPU-bound work. You are paying for memory this workload will not use.
r8gd.metal-48xl runs $10,299/mo on AWS on-demand. The 12-node equivalent on Rackspace Spot: $184/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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