Google Cloud and Intel: High Performance and Lower Cost
Google Cloud’s virtual machine (VM) instances C4 and N4 running on Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors outperform the competition and deliver more performance per dollar.
Powered by Intel® Xeon® Processors, Google Cloud VMs Exceed Expectations
C4: Image Classification
5.96 x
ResNet50 Performance vs. AMD 1
C4: Database
2.15 x
Redis Performance vs. AMD 2
N4: Web Server
4 x
NGINX Performance vs. AMD 3
C4: Image Classification
5.96 x
ResNet50 Performance vs. AMD 1
C4: Database
2.15 x
Redis Performance vs. AMD 2
N4: Web Server
4 x
NGINX Performance vs. AMD 3
C4 and N4 General Purpose VMs from Google Cloud: The Right Choice
C4 is the most performant general-purpose VM for Google Compute Engine (GCE) and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) customers, while N4 offers performance, and flexibility and is cost-optimized to handle a majority of workloads.
- C4’s single-core max turbo frequency (4.2 GHz) is the highest in Google Cloud, making it great for single-threaded apps such as game servers, financial and Monte Carlo simulations, and ML tasks like recommendation systems, image classification, and SLM training, tuning, and inferencing.
- N4 VMs are built from the ground up for price-performance gains and are suited for a variety of general-purpose workloads that don't always require peak processing power.
- Both N4 and C4 VMs support Intel’s latest built-in AI accelerator, Intel® Advanced Matrix Extensions (Intel® AMX) to maximize demanding AI workloads.
- GCP C4 and N4 VMs are powered by Google’s Titanium, which takes advantage of Intel Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU).
Google Cloud and Intel Deliver Performance for Every Workload
Explore various Google Cloud performance benchmarks against today's demanding workloads.
Google Cloud Virtual Machine Details
General Purpose
| Instance Name | Instance Type |
Benefits | Target Workloads | CPU | Specs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C4 | General Purpose | Up to 4.2 GHz (highest frequency in Google Cloud), high performance compute.Performance consistency enhanced maintenance controls, industry-leading network and storage performance through offloads | Web and app serving, game servers, databases and caches, video streaming, data analytics, network appliances, and CPU-based ML inference | Intel® Xeon® 6 and 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | Xeon 6: all C4 VMs with local SSD; 144 or 288 vCPUs, 1.1TB or 2.2TB mem, up to 4.2 GHz (single core turbo)
5th Gen Xeon: Up to 192 vCPUs, up to 1.5TB mem, up to 4.2 GHz (single core turbo) |
| N4 | General Purpose | Flexibility, Efficiency, Cost Optimization | Dev/test, batch processing, internal apps, microservices, code repos, storage & archive, desktop virtualization, small production apps, business intelligence, medium traffic web & app serving | 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | Up to 80 vCPUs, up to 640GB mem |
| C3 | General Purpose | Highly consistent performance; Intel AMX to boost AI/ML perf; | Mainstream | 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | Up to 176 vCPUs (or up to 192 vCPUs in bare metal), up to 1.4 TB mem |
| N2 | General Purpose | Flexibility and balanced price/performance; Custom machine types; widely available | Mainstream | 2nd Gen/3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | Up to 128 vCPUs, up to 864GB mem |
VMware
| Instance Name | Instance Type | Benefits | Target Workloads | CPU | Specs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VE2 | VMware | Run VMware Natively |
VMware-based nodes | 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® processor |
Up to 128 vCPUs, 2TB Mem, Up to 51TB local SSD |
| VE1 | VMware | Run VMware Natively |
VMware-based nodes | 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® processor |
72 vCPUs, 1TB Mem, 19TB local SSD |
Compute Optimized
| Instance Name | Instance Type | Benefits | Target Workloads | CPU |
Specs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H3 | Compute Optimized | Enhanced execution resources for HPC workloads | HPC Workloads | 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® processor |
88 vCPUs, 352GB mem |
| C2 | Compute Optimized | High frequency CPU (3.8GHz); Widely available | Apps needing single-threaded frequency | 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | Up to 60 vCPUs, up to 240 GB Mem |
Memory Optimized
| Instance Name | Instance Type | Benefits | Target Workloads | CPU | Specs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| X4 | Memory Optimized | Offers the most memory to support your most demanding workloads | Extra-large SAP HANA systems. On-demand, enterprise-grade, ultra memory-equipped IaaS. High-performance computing |
4th Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | Up to 1,920 vCPUs, up to 32,768 GB mem |
| M4 | Memory Optimized | Ideal for memory-intensive workloads, Google Cloud's most performant memory-optimized VM with under 6TB of memory | High Memory databases (e.g. SAP HANA) | 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | Up to 224 vCPUs, up to 6TB mem |
| M3 | Memory Optimized | Ideal for memory-intensive workloads, offering more memory per core than other machine families | In-memory databases (e.g. SAP HANA) | 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | Up to 128 vCPUs, up to 1952 GB mem |
| M2 | Ultra Mem - Memory Optimized | Up to 12TB VMs, Run very large databases (SAP HANA) | High Memory Database (e.g. SAP HANA) | 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | 208/416 vCPUs, 6TB/12TB Mem |
| M1 (mega mem) | Memory Optimized | Run large databases (SAP HANA) | High Memory Database (e.g. SAP HANA) | Intel® Xeon® processor | 96 vCPUs, 1.4 TB Mem |
| M1 (ultra mem) | Memory Optimized | Up to 4TB VMs, Run very large databases (SAP HANA) | High Memory Database (e.g. SAP HANA) | Intel Xeon® E7v4 | Up to 160 vCPUs, up to 4TB Mem |
Storage Optimized
| Instance Name | Instance Type | Benefits | Target Workloads | CPU | Specs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Z3 | Storage Optimized | Suitable for workloads that are low in core usage and high in storage density | Scale-out analytics workloads, flash-optimized databases, search, media streaming | 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | Up to 176 vCPUs, up to 1,408 GB mem, up to 72TB local SSD |
Confidential Computing
| Instance Name | Instance Type |
Benefits | Target Workloads | CPU | Specs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C3-standard | Confidential VM | Confidential VMs use hardware-based memory encryption enabled by Intel TDX to help ensure your data and applications can't be read or modified while in use. | Workloads that benefit from a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). TEEs are secure and isolated environments that prevent unauthorized access or modification of applications and data while they are in use. | 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® processor | Up to 176 vCPUs, up to 704 GB mem |