Linux and Windows benchmark scores
Linux® and Windows® benchmark scores are measured on high-performance virtual servers for IBM Cloud® Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) by using CoreMark. CoreMark is an industry standard benchmark that measures the performance of CPUs on physical machines and virtual servers that are offered by Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers like IBM Cloud VPC.
While the current benchmark results are for Compute instance profiles, we expect the CoreMark scores to be similar for Balanced and Memory instance profiles with the same CPU count.
Compute virtual server profiles
Compute profiles offer a core to RAM ratio of 1 vCPU to 2 GiB of RAM ratio and are best for moderate to high web traffic workloads. Compute profiles are best for workloads with intensive CPU demands, such as high web traffic workloads, production batch processing, and front-end web servers.
You can provision virtual servers on Compute hosts with Broadwell, Skylake, or Cascade Lake processor types. The benchmark tests are run on all CPU types. The following tables show the benchmark scores for Linux and Windows virtual server Compute instance profiles.
| Profile | CPU | CPU MHz | vCPUs | Score | Standard Deviation (%) | Sample Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cx2-2x4 | Broadwell | 2095.170 | 2 | 24690.74 | 3.76 | 2160 |
| cx2-4x8 | Broadwell | 2095.148 | 4 | 49126.78 | 2.08 | 1560 |
| cx2-8x16 | Broadwell | 2095.148 | 8 | 99210.04 | 1.47 | 1070 |
| cx2-16x32 | Broadwell | 2095.148 | 16 | 197633.25 | 1.38 | 735 |
| cx2-32x64 | Broadwell | 2095.148 | 32 | 389354.87 | 1.01 | 2600 |
| cx2-48x96 | Broadwell | 2095.148 | 48 | 579164.89 | 1.81 | 3150 |
| cx2-2x4 | Skylake | 2593.910 | 2 | 33762.35 | 3.05 | 1180 |
| cx2-4x8 | Skylake | 2593.910 | 4 | 64204.93 | 1.86 | 1010 |
| cx2-8x16 | Skylake | 2593.910 | 8 | 124993.94 | 1.86 | 1280 |
| cx2-16x32 | Skylake | 2593.910 | 16 | 252193.52 | 1.43 | 1020 |
| cx2-32x64 | Skylake | 2593.942 | 32 | 501800.80 | 1.88 | 829 |
| cx2-48x96 | Skylake | 2593.910 | 48 | 733627.36 | 1.53 | 1430 |
| cx2-2x4 | Cascade Lake | 2593.906 | 2 | 32965.71 | 6.12 | 660 |
| cx2-4x8 | Cascade Lake | 2593.906 | 4 | 66823.80 | 2.88 | 1450 |
| cx2-8x16 | Cascade Lake | 2593.910 | 8 | 130840.32 | 2.99 | 1590 |
| cx2-16x32 | Cascade Lake | 2593.910 | 16 | 260456.10 | 2.70 | 1820 |
| cx2-32x64 | Cascade Lake | 2593.938 | 32 | 491829.84 | 2.61 | 2270 |
| cx2-48x96 | Cascade Lake | 2593.948 | 48 | 740440.18 | 2.35 | 1720 |
| Profile | CPU | CPU MHz | vCPUs | Score | Standard Deviation (%) | Sample Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cx2-2x4 | Broadwell | 2095 | 2 | 24856.04 | 1.13 | 2980 |
| cx2-4x8 | Broadwell | 2095 | 4 | 49812.16 | 1.18 | 1980 |
| cx2-8x16 | Broadwell | 2095 | 8 | 99004.92 | 1.74 | 1619 |
| cx2-16x32 | Broadwell | 2095 | 16 | 198064.93 | 1.35 | 1190 |
| cx2-32x64 | Broadwell | 2095 | 32 | 390969.81 | 0.72 | 868 |
| cx2-48x96 | Broadwell | 2096 | 48 | 583921.43 | 0.67 | 1110 |
| cx2-2x4 | Skylake | 2594 | 2 | 33117.14 | 4.66 | 707 |
| cx2-4x8 | Skylake | 2594 | 4 | 64123.32 | 2.38 | 890 |
| cx2-8x16 | Skylake | 2594 | 8 | 125528.91 | 2.81 | 1080 |
| cx2-16x32 | Skylake | 2594 | 16 | 250483.46 | 2.40 | 1000 |
| cx2-32x64 | Skylake | 2594 | 32 | 487394.15 | 1.91 | 870 |
| cx2-48x96 | Skylake | 2594 | 48 | 725383.25 | 2.14 | 610 |
| cx2-2x4 | Cascade Lake | 2594 | 2 | 34456.40 | 1.43 | 476 |
| cx2-4x8 | Cascade Lake | 2594 | 4 | 65935.61 | 1.36 | 1290 |
| cx2-8x16 | Cascade Lake | 2594 | 8 | 128147.69 | 3.14 | 1430 |
| cx2-16x32 | Cascade Lake | 2594 | 16 | 254473.98 | 2.48 | 1630 |
| cx2-32x64 | Cascade Lake | 2594 | 32 | 495187.22 | 2.49 | 2000 |
| cx2-48x96 | Cascade Lake | 2594 | 48 | 735378.48 | 1.75 | 1990 |
How IBM Cloud measures performance
The CoreMark benchmark is created in PerforKitBenchmarker, an open source cloud benchmarking framework with ibmcloud provider, which is contributed by IBM Cloud® engineers.
For Linux measurements, virtual servers are created with the Red Hat version 8.4 image in the IBM Cloud® public catalog. For Windows measurements, servers are created with the Windows Server 2019 image.