Instances›AWS EC2›x1e›x1e.16xlarge
Compute
vCPUs64
Memory1952 GiB
Mem / vCPU30.50 GiB
ProcessorHigh Frequency Intel Xeon E7-8880 v3
Clock speed2.3 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
Type1 × 1,920 GB SSD
Bandwidth7,000 Mbps
Throughput875 MB/s
IOPS40,000
Networking
Performance10 Gigabit
Max ENIs8
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
x1e.xlarge4 vCPU · 122 GiB
x1e.2xlarge8 vCPU · 244 GiB
x1e.4xlarge16 vCPU · 488 GiB
x1e.8xlarge32 vCPU · 976 GiB
x1e.16xlarge64 vCPU · 1952 GiB
x1e.32xlarge128 vCPU · 3904 GiB
x1e.16xlarge

x1e.16xlarge is AWS's memory-optimized EC2 size at 64 vCPU and 1952 GiB. In the name, "x" is the extra-memory line, "1" is the generation, "e" marks extended capacity and "16xlarge" is the size within the x1e family. It runs on High Frequency Intel Xeon E7-8880 v3 (Haswell) at 2.3 GHz, and AWS introduced it in November 2017. AWS has since shipped x2gd and x8i; x2gd.16xlarge is the direct replacement at this size, scoring 1,269,505 CoreMark/s against this instance's 1,105,975 — roughly 15% more throughput for the same vCPU count. The closest Spot shape is mh.vs1.2xlarge at 16 vCPU, so this instance maps to 14 of them — 224 vCPU and 1792 GiB across the fleet, $13.34/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.294/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

x1e.16xlarge gives you 64 vCPU and 1,952 GiB in a single machine. The largest comparable Spot node, mh.vs1.2xlarge, is 16 vCPU and 128 GiB, so the equivalent here is 14 nodes rather than one.

Spot runs as managed Kubernetes, so a 14-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 1,952 GiB in one process, it does not.

No local diskx1e.16xlarge comes with 1 × 1,920 GB 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$13.344$1.859$8.223$4.290$0.294
$13.050 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.294
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$1.834
Hong Kong$0.294
Sydney, Australia$19.344$1.934$11.919$6.219$0.294
$19.050 savings
London, UK$1.834
US West, San Jose$0.028
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$3.388
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 1952 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 1 × 1,920 GB of local SSD scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 10 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 14 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. x2gd.16xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 1952 GiB of RAM
  • ●More than 30.50 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.
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●CPU-bound work. You are paying for memory this workload will not use.
$9,741/mo on AWS on-demand against $215/mo on Rackspace Spot for the 14-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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