going their own way is inevitable. period. full stop. we are going to see more of these from more big players, CDNs and others. sure x86 is not going away. those instances will be available in every cloud, but if the big users like CDNs, netflix, youtube, twitch, instagram, facebook, china, .... increasing move away from x86 in datacenter and make "their own" thats quite a big chunk of x86 server business gone.
I'd love to see intel, hat in hand, going back to gamers as its primary customers. LUL
the day pure play foundries succeeded in catching up with intel and really exceeding it, was the day intel went from being a "key partner" to its big customers to being a "business risk", and unnecessary middle man and an uncontrollable bureaucracy with a different focus.
this does not necessarily happen to gamers but in the data center its just a matter of time.
Mostly these big cloud providers need multiple sources for everything including CPU's. Its a huge risk to have one vendor of anything. AMD however is really becoming viable which may make Graviton2 mostly pointless. You know I have heard all sorts of crazy rumors but you know I never heard Amazon buying AMD but I'm surprised they didn't when it was cheap a couple years ago. It was probably cheaper than building there own CPU.
Intel/AMD could license out x86 IP like ARM does. AMD's semi custom division is a big step in that direction... and Samsung is already customizing Radeon IP.
The x86 cross licensing though... I can't even imagine the legal fees involved.
I’m making more than $75k by just doing very easy and simple online job from home.Last month my friend sister received $94280 from this work by just giving only 2 to 3 hrs a day.Everybody start earning money online. visit for more details… www.iⅭash68.ⅭＯⅯ
i remember the graviton1 announcement said compute was 40% cheaper. for compute intensive workloads like video encoding i'd be very surprised it if doesnt beat intel instances by way more than that 40%
if you are thinking a t3.small has 2 x86 cores (hyptherthreads) just for you. you are reading it very wrong. its a vCPU. if i remember correctly small gets 10% of that core (hyptherthread).
the x86 cores are just hyperthreads not physical cores, and you only get so much burst credit. the arm cores are full physical cores. i dont know about burst credits on that one.
I'm not sure what the non-burst rate on a T instance is; if you're doing enough work for it to matter you probably shouldn't be on a T to begin with.
An m5.large (1 dedicated x86 core/2threads 8gb of ram) is 9.6 cents/hour. An equivalent m6g.large is 7.7 cents/hour. That's a 20% discount before factoring in any differences in CPU performance.
you are comparing m5 generation to m6 thats completely flawed. there may be many other features like network, nvme instance store, diff hypervisor, security patches, lots of things that could have changed.
as for should be using T instance or not its completely diff story. i dont need such education. i was pointing out to him that 2 CPU may not mean just 2 CPUs.
at the end of the day amazon's 40% cheaper compute claim is not a fabrication on something so easily testable.
Unless I'm missing something (is the pricelist linked upthread incomplete?) m6 is arm/Graviton only making m5 the closest x86 option and best comparison target.
Equivalent instances are both cheaper as well as faster, so the savings multiply. Typical result seems to be that x86 instances are 40-50% more expensive for a given task.
"the m6g instances delivered better cost efficiency compared to competing Intel and AMD-based instances."
This has been discussed before, but it's premature to draw hard conclusions from price comparisons when AWS has complete price control and doesn't share their costs publicly. Time will tell if this price/performance advantage is sustained, though Graviton certainly puts AMD & Intel on notice.
This! Amazon plays the long game - that's how they got where they are now. They'll eat a loss for a while to get market share, then raise their rates when they have a large enough captive audience.
There isn't a captive audience - there isn't a single x86 or Arm cloud provider. So you can easily switch to another cloud provider which offers a lower price. If anything competition between various Arm cloud providers will likely drive prices lower. The assertion that the prices will be raised dramatically soon is preposterous.
Amazon doesn't have to raise their prices, they just don't have to pass on their own increased savings from economy of scale etc . The "captive audience" can escape, as you correctly point out, but I wonder just how many customers will stick with what they know works, even if it costs a bit more than the competition now. Try to get your CIO sign off on changing a cloud services provider for a few percent of savings: some will laud your efforts, some will say no, many might say "I'm not sure about this." I would be curious how many here have jumped to another cloud computing provider based mainly on price.
Would have to be quite an increase compared to competition to get a business to move, the cost of migration also includes possible downtime, customer interruption, etc.
Intel have been hit by bad news everywhere recently. WIth more and more viable competitors attacking their cash cows, it should be a matter of time they feel serious pain. I believe AMD is already giving them a hard time both in the enterprise and consumer sector. As these big companies start rolling out their own chips, demand for Intel chip will inevitably decline year on year.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
21 Comments
Back to Article
azfacea - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
going their own way is inevitable. period. full stop. we are going to see more of these from more big players, CDNs and others. sure x86 is not going away. those instances will be available in every cloud, but if the big users like CDNs, netflix, youtube, twitch, instagram, facebook, china, .... increasing move away from x86 in datacenter and make "their own" thats quite a big chunk of x86 server business gone.I'd love to see intel, hat in hand, going back to gamers as its primary customers. LUL
azfacea - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
the day pure play foundries succeeded in catching up with intel and really exceeding it, was the day intel went from being a "key partner" to its big customers to being a "business risk", and unnecessary middle man and an uncontrollable bureaucracy with a different focus.this does not necessarily happen to gamers but in the data center its just a matter of time.
FreckledTrout - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
Mostly these big cloud providers need multiple sources for everything including CPU's. Its a huge risk to have one vendor of anything. AMD however is really becoming viable which may make Graviton2 mostly pointless. You know I have heard all sorts of crazy rumors but you know I never heard Amazon buying AMD but I'm surprised they didn't when it was cheap a couple years ago. It was probably cheaper than building there own CPU.brucethemoose - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
Intel/AMD could license out x86 IP like ARM does. AMD's semi custom division is a big step in that direction... and Samsung is already customizing Radeon IP.The x86 cross licensing though... I can't even imagine the legal fees involved.
amandakspikes - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
I’m making more than $75k by just doing very easy and simple online job from home.Last month my friend sister received $94280 from this work by just giving only 2 to 3 hrs a day.Everybody start earning money online. visit for more details… www.iⅭash68.ⅭＯⅯMrEcho - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
Just doing a quick look, they seem to be just a bit cheaper than others of the same CPU/RAM amount, but not by much.https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/
azfacea - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
not by much ?i remember the graviton1 announcement said compute was 40% cheaper. for compute intensive workloads like video encoding i'd be very surprised it if doesnt beat intel instances by way more than that 40%
azfacea - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
if you are thinking a t3.small has 2 x86 cores (hyptherthreads) just for you. you are reading it very wrong. its a vCPU. if i remember correctly small gets 10% of that core (hyptherthread).the x86 cores are just hyperthreads not physical cores, and you only get so much burst credit. the arm cores are full physical cores. i dont know about burst credits on that one.
DanNeely - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
I'm not sure what the non-burst rate on a T instance is; if you're doing enough work for it to matter you probably shouldn't be on a T to begin with.An m5.large (1 dedicated x86 core/2threads 8gb of ram) is 9.6 cents/hour. An equivalent m6g.large is 7.7 cents/hour. That's a 20% discount before factoring in any differences in CPU performance.
azfacea - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
you are comparing m5 generation to m6 thats completely flawed. there may be many other features like network, nvme instance store, diff hypervisor, security patches, lots of things that could have changed.as for should be using T instance or not its completely diff story. i dont need such education. i was pointing out to him that 2 CPU may not mean just 2 CPUs.
at the end of the day amazon's 40% cheaper compute claim is not a fabrication on something so easily testable.
DanNeely - Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - link
Unless I'm missing something (is the pricelist linked upthread incomplete?) m6 is arm/Graviton only making m5 the closest x86 option and best comparison target.azfacea - Friday, May 15, 2020 - link
it may be the closest x86 generation but m5 has been available since before 2017 if i am not wrong. its clearly different generation.azfacea - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
the proper way to read that table is by considering an arm "medium" to be comparable to an x86 "medium" at least in compute, i.e. cpu benchmarksWilco1 - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
Equivalent instances are both cheaper as well as faster, so the savings multiply. Typical result seems to be that x86 instances are 40-50% more expensive for a given task.voicequal - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
"the m6g instances delivered better cost efficiency compared to competing Intel and AMD-based instances."This has been discussed before, but it's premature to draw hard conclusions from price comparisons when AWS has complete price control and doesn't share their costs publicly. Time will tell if this price/performance advantage is sustained, though Graviton certainly puts AMD & Intel on notice.
brucethemoose - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
Also, Amazon has *no problem* running those Graviton instances at a loss to gain market share.eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
This! Amazon plays the long game - that's how they got where they are now. They'll eat a loss for a while to get market share, then raise their rates when they have a large enough captive audience.Wilco1 - Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - link
There isn't a captive audience - there isn't a single x86 or Arm cloud provider. So you can easily switch to another cloud provider which offers a lower price. If anything competition between various Arm cloud providers will likely drive prices lower. The assertion that the prices will be raised dramatically soon is preposterous.eastcoast_pete - Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - link
Amazon doesn't have to raise their prices, they just don't have to pass on their own increased savings from economy of scale etc . The "captive audience" can escape, as you correctly point out, but I wonder just how many customers will stick with what they know works, even if it costs a bit more than the competition now. Try to get your CIO sign off on changing a cloud services provider for a few percent of savings: some will laud your efforts, some will say no, many might say "I'm not sure about this." I would be curious how many here have jumped to another cloud computing provider based mainly on price.RSAUser - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
Would have to be quite an increase compared to competition to get a business to move, the cost of migration also includes possible downtime, customer interruption, etc.watzupken - Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - link
Intel have been hit by bad news everywhere recently. WIth more and more viable competitors attacking their cash cows, it should be a matter of time they feel serious pain. I believe AMD is already giving them a hard time both in the enterprise and consumer sector. As these big companies start rolling out their own chips, demand for Intel chip will inevitably decline year on year.