March 7, 2026
Benchmarks spark budget brawls
Cloud VM benchmarks 2026: performance/price for 44 VM types over 7 providers
Cloud speed test shocks 2026: AMD thrills, Hetzner hype, Oracle drama
TLDR: A new test of 44 cloud VMs crowned AMD’s Turin as the price‑performance star. Comments split between Hetzner bargain love, on‑prem hardware loyalists saying it’s cheaper, and widespread nerves about Oracle’s potential lock‑in—making this benchmark a must‑read for anyone chasing speed without surprise costs.
The 2026 cloud VM showdown landed with 44 machine types across 7 providers, ranked by what you actually get for your money—and the comments went feral. AMD’s new Turin chip stole the spotlight, with fans calling it a “huge leap” and basically throwing a digital parade for Lisa Su. Intel’s Granite Rapids and the fresh ARM crew (Google Axion, Azure Cobalt, AmpereOne) showed up, but the crowd’s vibe was clear: Turin is the main character.
Value hunters rocked up waving Hetzner flags, praising CPX22 as “best value and fastest overall,” then immediately sighed because it’s only sold in a couple regions. Cue the budget brawl: the on‑prem camp (that’s “own your servers”) swore building your own boxes is cheaper, while cloud loyalists backed the convenience of clicking deploy and moving on. One thrifty hero bragged their older Rome chips still smack high‑end desktop CPUs in multi‑threaded jobs—even if single‑thread speed is “awful.”
Then the Oracle discourse started. The benchmark hints Oracle offers strong performance per dollar, but commenters traded warnings about “lock‑in” and licensing gotchas. Meme-wise, it was “send help, my CFO discovered Hetzner,” “Lisa Su fan club applications open,” and “Cloud cult vs Hardware hoarders”—because nothing unites the internet like a benchmark and a better fight.
Key Points
- •Benchmarks cover 44 VM types from 7 providers, with testing expanded across multiple regions to present performance and price ranges.
- •CPU-focused methodology excludes burstable instances, with separate single-thread tests and multi-thread tests at 2 vCPUs (one core on SMT systems).
- •Newly tested CPUs include AMD EPYC Turin, Intel Granite Rapids, and ARM-based Google Axion, Azure Cobalt 100, and AmpereOne M.
- •Pricing comparisons standardize on 2 GB RAM per vCPU and a 30 GB SSD boot disk; on-demand pricing uses the lowest-cost U.S. (or Europe) regions and reflects January 2026.
- •GCP sustained-use discounts are excluded as non–on-demand; 1-year and 3-year no-upfront reserved/committed prices are included where available.