Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a new generation of EC2 instances – C8id, M8id and R8id – offering significant performance and storage improvements over previous generations. These instances, announced on an unspecified date in 2025, are powered by custom Intel Xeon 6 processors and feature up to 22.8 TB of local NVMe-based SSD block-level storage.
Enhanced Performance and Capacity
The new instances deliver up to 43% higher compute performance and 3.3 times more memory bandwidth compared to their sixth-generation predecessors. I/O intensive database workloads see up to 46% performance gains, and real-time data analytics queries are up to 30% faster. The C8id, M8id, and R8id instances also scale up to 96xlarge, a substantial increase from the 32xlarge sizes available in the sixth generation. This scaling allows for up to 384 vCPUs, 3 TiB of memory, and the aforementioned 22.8 TB of local storage.
Instance Specialization
AWS is tailoring these instances to specific workload types. C8id instances are optimized for compute-intensive tasks, particularly those requiring high-speed, low-latency local storage. Examples include video encoding, image manipulation, and other media processing applications. M8id instances strike a balance between compute and memory resources, also benefiting from fast local block storage, making them suitable for data logging, media processing, and medium-sized data stores. Finally, R8id instances are designed for memory-intensive applications like large-scale SQL and NoSQL databases, in-memory databases, large-scale data analytics, and AI inference.
Technical Specifications and Bare Metal Options
The instances are available in 11 sizes per family, alongside two bare metal configurations – metal-48xl and metal-96xl. These bare metal options provide direct access to the underlying physical hardware, beneficial for performance-sensitive workloads. A table detailing the specifications for various instance sizes is as follows:
| Instance Name | vCPUs | Memory (GiB) (C/M/R) | Local NVMe storage (GB) | Network bandwidth (Gbps) | EBS bandwidth (Gbps) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| large | 2 | 4/8/16* | 1 x 118 | Up to 12.5 | Up to 10 |
| xlarge | 4 | 8/16/32* | 1 x 237 | Up to 12.5 | Up to 10 |
| 2xlarge | 8 | 16/32/64* | 1 x 474 | Up to 15 | Up to 10 |
| 4xlarge | 16 | 32/64/128* | 1 x 950 | Up to 15 | Up to 10 |
| 8xlarge | 32 | 64/128/256* | 1 x 1,900 | 15 | 10 |
| 12xlarge | 48 | 96/192/384* | 1 x 2,850 | 22.5 | 15 |
| 16xlarge | 64 | 128/256/512* | 1 x 3,800 | 30 | 20 |
| 24xlarge | 96 | 192/384/768* | 2 x 2,850 | 40 | 30 |
| 32xlarge | 128 | 256/512/1024* | 2 x 3,800 | 50 | 40 |
| 48xlarge | 192 | 384/768/1536* | 3 x 3,800 | 75 | 60 |
| 96xlarge | 384 | 768/1536/3072* | 6 x 3,800 | 100 | 80 |
| metal-48xl | 192 | 384/768/1536* | 3 x 3,800 | 75 | 60 |
| metal-96xl | 384 | 768/1536/3072* | 6 x 3,800 | 100 | 80 |
*Memory values are for C8id/M8id/R8id respectively.
Networking and Storage Considerations
These instances support the Instance Bandwidth Configuration (IBC) feature, allowing users to allocate network and Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) bandwidth flexibly. The local NVMe storage is hardware-encrypted using XTS-AES-256 and keys are destroyed when the instance is stopped or terminated. The local NVMe devices do not persist after instance termination.
Availability and Purchasing Options
As of today, , the C8id, M8id, and R8id instances are available in US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), and US West (Oregon) AWS Regions. R8id instances are also available in Europe (Frankfurt). These instances can be purchased as On-Demand Instances, Savings Plans, and Spot Instances, as well as Dedicated Instances and Dedicated Hosts.
