In this post, we’ll compare Amazon EC2 instances C3 vs C4 vs C5. In this comparison, we will focus on cost, performance, and strength and weakness as a key to identify and upgrade your instance.
Whats new in Amazon C5 instances?
EC2 C5 is the next generation of their compute-optimized instances. Compute instance is chosen whenever there are high CPU workloads. C5 instance type having hardware hyperthread on a 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon Platinum 8000-series processor and Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) which offers 2250.0 Mbps of network bandwidth which is faster than the C4 instances
C5 instance requires HVM AMIs that include drivers for the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) and NVMe.
Command to check NVMe module installed or not in your current Amazon EC2 instance:
[ec2-user ~]$ lsmod | grep nvme
If you are planning to migrate/upgrade instances to C5 then below points will help you to take the decision.
Compare Amazon EC2 instances C3 vs C4 vs C5 Specification:
From the table below you will come to know about compute units, Memory Network performance, EBS bandwidth, EBS throughput stand out as the most visible difference makers. The C4 and C5 instance look pretty similar
|
Metrics |
AWS Instance Type |
||
|
C5 High-CPU Extra Large |
C4 High-CPU Extra Large |
C3 High-CPU Extra Large |
|
| API Name | c5.xlarge | c4.xlarge | c3.xlarge |
| Memory | 8.0 GiB | 7.5 GiB | 7.5 GiB |
| Compute Units (ECU) | 16 units | 16 units | 14 units |
| vCPUs | 4 vCPUs | 4 vCPUs | 4 vCPUs |
| Instance Storage | EBS only | EBS only | 80 GiB (2 * 40 GiB SSD) |
| Network Performance | Up to 10 Gbps | High | Moderate |
| EBS Optimized: Max Bandwidth | 2250.0 Mbps | 750.0 Mbps | N/A |
| EBS Optimized: Throughput | 281.25 MB/s | 93.75 MB/s | 0 MB/s |
| Enhanced Networking | Yes | Yes | No |
Compare Amazon EC2 instances C3 vs C4 vs C5 Cost:
Pricing wise, C5 packs is having less cost than C4 and C3. What’s interesting to note for Linux users is that the on-demand rates are slightly cheaper for c5 instances. Windows OS users have higher hourly operations costs. But, overall, it’s cheaper to run the c3 family. Here we will compare amazon ec2 c3 vs c4 vs c5 cost in terms of on-demand cost and 3yrs reserved partial upfront cost.
|
Metrics |
AWS Instance Type |
||
|
C5 High-CPU Extra Large |
C4 High-CPU Extra Large |
C3 High-CPU Extra Large |
|
| API Name | c5.xlarge | c4.xlarge | c3.xlarge |
| Linux On Demand cost | $124.100000 monthly | $145.270000 monthly | $153.300000 monthly |
| Linux 3yrs Reserved cost (Partial Upfront) |
$55.480000 monthly | $68.620000 monthly | $83.950000 monthly |
| Windows On Demand cost | $258.420000 monthly | $279.590000 monthly | $274.480000 monthly |
| Windows 3yrs Reserved cost (Partial Upfront) |
$189.800000 monthly | $202.940000 monthly | $195.640000 monthly |
Amazon C5 available in six sizes:
| Instance Name | vCPUs | RAM | EBS Bandwidth | Network Bandwidth |
| c5.large | 2 | 4 GiB | Up to 2.25 Gbps | Up to 10 Gbps |
| c5.xlarge | 4 | 8 GiB | Up to 2.25 Gbps | Up to 10 Gbps |
| c5.2xlarge | 8 | 16 GiB | Up to 2.25 Gbps | Up to 10 Gbps |
| c5.4xlarge | 16 | 32 GiB | 2.25 Gbps | Up to 10 Gbps |
| c5.9xlarge | 36 | 72 GiB | 4.5 Gbps | 10 Gbps |
| c5.18xlarge | 72 | 144 GiB | 9 Gbps | 25 Gbps |
Recap of ‘C’ type EC2 instances:
C3 – Launched in 2013
C4 – Launched in 2015
C5 – Launched in 2017
Conclusion:
C5 instances offer a much better performance and price compared to the C4 instances.
If a user needs a high IOPS of local storage then C3 will be the best choice.
If a user requires EBS then C5 will be the best choice as compared to the cost and high EBS throughput.
If a user not required any EBS Optimization, then they can go either for C4 or C5 as per extra compute than C3 and we suggest to go with C5 as it is little cheaper than C4. If high disk I/O required then it might be more practical to stay with C3 instances this needs to process a large number of logs and to streams data.
Checkout AWS EC2 instance type list.
Similarly, we have compared Amazon EC2 M5 vs M4
If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave any comments below.
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