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vCPU performance levels

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Updated at April 18, 2025

When creating a virtual machine, you need to select a vCPU performance level. This level defines the physical core computing time a vCPU can guarantee.

  • Virtual machines with performance under 100% have access to the computing power of physical cores for at least the specified percentage of a unit of time.

    At 20% performance, a VM will have access to the physical cores at least 20% of the time, i.e., 200 milliseconds out of every second. During that time, the processor clock speed is not limited and depends on the selected platform, e.g., 2 GHz for Intel Ice Lake (standard-v3).

    VMs with a performance level under 100% are designed to run applications that do not require high performance and are not sensitive to delays. These VMs cost less.

  • Virtual machines with 100% performance have continuous access (100% of the time) to the physical core computing power. Such VMs are designed to run applications that require high performance all the time.

Actual performance may exceed the guaranteed level. Available configurations of computing resources may change for different levels, depending on the selected platform.

The available disk space does not depend on the VM performance level. For limitations, see Quotas and limits in Compute Cloud.

Minimum and maximum configurations

This subsection presents the minimum and maximum computing resource configurations depending on the platform. You can achieve these values in different combinations.

Note

The option with simultaneous maximum configuration of all computing resources is not available for all platforms. For more information, see Available configurations.

  • Intel Broadwell (standard-v1):

    Limit Performance
    level    		 vCPU RAM, GB
    total    		 RAM, GB
    per core
    Min 5% 2 1 0.5
    Max 100% 32 256 8

  • Intel Cascade Lake (standard-v2):

    Limit Performance
    level    		 vCPU RAM, GB
    total    		 RAM, GB
    per core
    Min 5% 2 0.5 0.25
    Max 100% 80 1280 16

  • Intel Ice Lake (standard-v3):

    Limit Performance
    level    		 vCPU RAM, GB
    total    		 RAM, GB
    per core
    Min 20% 2 1 0.5
    Max 100% 96 640 16

  • Intel Ice Lake Compute-Optimized (highfreq-v3):

    Limit Performance
    level    		 vCPU RAM, GB
    total    		 RAM, GB
    per core
    Min 100% 2 2 1
    Max 100% 56 448 16

Available configurations

  • Intel Broadwell (standard-v1):

    Performance
    level    		 vCPU RAM, GB
    per core
    5% 2, 4 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2
    20% 2, 4 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4
    100% 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14,
    16, 20, 24, 28, 32    		 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

  • Intel Cascade Lake (standard-v2):

    Performance
    level    		 vCPU RAM, GB
    per core
    5% 2, 4 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2
    20% 2, 4 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4
    50% 2, 4 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4
    100% 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14,
    16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36,
    40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60,
    64, 68, 72, 76, 80    		 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
    11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

  • Intel Ice Lake (standard-v3):

    Performance
    level    		 vCPU RAM per core, GB
    20% 2, 4 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4
    50% 2, 4 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4
    100% 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
    11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
    100% 24 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
    100% 28 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
    100% 32 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
    100% 36, 40 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
    11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
    100% 44 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
    11, 12, 13, 14
    100% 48 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
    11, 12, 13
    100% 52 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
    11, 12
    100% 56 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
    11
    100% 60, 64 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
    100% 68 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
    100% 72, 76, 80 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
    100% 84, 88 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
    100% 92, 96 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  • Intel Ice Lake Compute-Optimized (highfreq-v3):

    vCPU RAM, GB per core
    2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14,
    16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36,
    40, 44, 48, 52, 56    		 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
    11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
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