Amazon EC2 C5 instances — originally launched in 2017 with Intel Xeon processors (C5), 2018 with fast local NVMe storage (C5d) and increased network bandwidth and memory (C5n), and 2020 with AMD processors (C5a and C5ad) — deliver cost-effective high performance at a low price per compute ratio for running advanced compute-intensive workloads.
C5 and C5d instances are powered by 1st or 2nd generation Intel Xeon Platinum 8000 processors (Skylake-SP or Cascade Lake) with a sustained all-core Turbo CPU frequency of 3.6GHz.
C5 and C5d 12xlarge, 24xlarge, and metal instance sizes feature the 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Cascade Lake) with a sustained all-core Turbo CPU frequency of 3.6GHz, and provide up to 25 Gbps of network bandwidth and up to 19 Gbps of dedicated bandwidth to Amazon EBS.
The latest generation of Intel-based compute optimized instances, Amazon EC2 C6i, was released in late 2021.
According to AWS, Amazon EC2 C6i instances are powered by 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors and deliver up to 15% better price performance compared to C5 instances for a wide variety of workloads.
C6i instances feature twice the networking bandwidth of C5 instances, and support up to 128 vCPUs per instance, which is 33% more than C5 instances.
C6i are also available with local NVMe-based SSD block-level storage (C6id instances) and compared to previous generation C5d instances, C6id instances offer up to 138% higher TB storage per vCPU and 56% lower cost per TB.
When to use Amazon EC2 C5 instances
Amazon EC2 C5 instances offer high performance at a low price per compute for advanced compute-intensive workloads such as:
- High-performance web servers
- High-performance computing (HPC)
- Batch processing
- Ad serving
- Highly scalable multiplayer gaming
- Video encoding
- Scientific modeling
- Distributed analytics
- Machine/deep learning inference
Cloud cost management from Anodot automatically recommends when an older-generation instance (like one in the EC2 C4 family) should be upgraded to a C5 or C6i instance for your compute-intensive workload.
Amazon EC2 c5.2xlarge and c5.4xlarge details and pricing options
| API name | c5.2xlarge | c5.4xlarge |
| Memory | 16.0 GiB | 32.0 GiB |
| vCPUs | 8 vCPUs | 16 vCPUs |
| Storage | EBS Only | EBS Only |
| Network Performance | Up to 10 Gigabit | Up to 10 Gigabit |
| Linux On-Demand pricing | $0.3400 per Hour | $0.6800 per Hour |
| Linux Reserved pricing | $0.2140 per Hour | $0.4280 per Hour |
| Linux Spot pricing | $0.1736 per Hour | $0.3094 per Hour |
| Windows On-Demand pricing | $0.7080 per Hour | $1.4160 per Hour |
| Windows Reserved pricing | $0.5820 per Hour | $1.1640 per Hour |
| Windows Spot pricing | $0.4975 per Hour | $0.9951 per Hour |
When to Amazon EC2 C5d instances
C5d instances, introduced in May 2018, provide up to 3.6 TB of local NVMe-based SSDs that are physically connected to the host server and provide block-level storage that is coupled to the lifetime of the instance.
Applications that require high-speed, low-latency local storage, or applications requiring temporary data storage, will benefit from these instances, including:
- Video encoding
- Image manipulation
- Other forms of media processing
- Batch and log processing
- Applications that need caches and scratch files
Amazon EC2 c5.2xlarge and c5.4xlarge details and pricing options
| API Name | c5d.2xlarge | c5d.4xlarge |
| Memory | 16.0 GiB | 32.0 GiB |
| vCPUs | 8 vCPUs | 16 vCPUs |
| Storage | 200 GB NVMe SSD | 400 GB NVMe SSD |
| Network Performance | Up to 10 Gigabit | Up to 10 Gigabit |
| Linux On-Demand pricing | $0.3840 per Hour | $0.7680 per Hour |
| Linux Reserved pricing | $0.2420 per Hour | $0.4840 per Hour |
| Linux Spot pricing | $0.1371 per Hour | $0.3361 per Hour |
| Windows On-Demand pricing | $0.7520 per Hour | $1.5040 per Hour |
| Windows Reserved pricing | $0.6100 per Hour | $1.2200 per Hour |
| Windows Spot pricing | $0.4975 per Hour | $0.9951 per Hour |
Amazon EC2 C5 and C5d product details and pricing
| Instance | vCPU | Memory (GiB) | Instance Storage (GB) | Network Bandwidth (Gbps) | EBS Bandwidth (Mbps) | Linux On-Demand hourly rate for US East |
| c5.large | 2 | 4 | EBS-Only | Up to 10 | Up to 4,570 | $0.09 |
| c5.xlarge | 4 | 8 | EBS-Only | Up to 10 | Up to 4,570 | $0.17 |
| c5.2xlarge | 8 | 16 | EBS-Only | Up to 10 | Up to 4,570 | $0.34 |
| c5.4xlarge | 16 | 32 | EBS-Only | Up to 10 | 4,750 | $0.68 |
| c5.9xlarge | 36 | 72 | EBS-Only | 10 | 9,500 | $1.53 |
| c5.12xlarge | 48 | 96 | EBS-Only | 12 | 9,500 | $2.04 |
| c5.18xlarge | 72 | 144 | EBS-Only | 25 | 19,000 | $3.06 |
| c5.24xlarge | 96 | 192 | EBS-Only | 25 | 19,000 | $4.08 |
| c5.metal | 96 | 192 | EBS-Only | 25 | 19,000 | $4.08 |
| c5d.large | 2 | 4 | 1×50 NVMeSSD | Up to 10 | Up to 4,750 | $0.10 |
| c5d.xlarge | 4 | 8 | 1 x 100 NVMe SSD | Up to 10 | Up to 4,750 | $0.19 |
| c5d.2xlarge | 8 | 16 | 1 x 200 NVMe SSD | Up to 10 | Up to 4,750 | $0.38 |
| c5d.4xlarge | 16 | 32 | 1 x 400 NVMe SSD | Up to 10 | 4,750 | $0.77 |
| c5d.9xlarge | 36 | 72 | 1 x 900 NVMe SSD | 10 | 9,500 | $1.73 |
| c5d.12xlarge | 48 | 96 | 2 x 900 NVMe SSD | 12 | 9,500 | $2.30 |
| c5d.18xlarge | 72 | 144 | 2 x 900 NVMe SSD | 25 | 19,000 | $3.46 |
| c5d.24xlarge | 96 | 192 | 4 x 900 NVMe SSD | 25 | 19,000 | $4.61 |
| c5d.metal | 96 | 192 | 4 x 900 NVMe SSD | 25 | 19,000 | $4.61 |
C5 and C5d instances are available through the following AWS purchasing and discount options:
- On-Demand Instances
- Savings Plans
- Reserved Instances
- Spot Instances
Written by Anodot
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