Dedicated Server Cost per Core: Seven EPYC and Xeon Servers Ranked

Across our seven configurations, dedicated server cost per core runs from €6.48 a month on the Dual EPYC 9754 to €20.21 on the Single EPYC 9254. Per thread, the same two servers set the range at €3.24 and €10.10. The lowest figure is not automatically the best buy, because clock speed, CPU generation, memory and storage change how much work each core delivers.

Dedicated server cost per core and per thread, ranked

Monthly prices at checkout with the 1 Gbps port included, sorted by price per physical core.

Server	Price per month	Cores / threads	€ per core	€ per thread	€ per GB RAM	Base clock
Dual EPYC 9754	€1,659	256 / 512	€6.48	€3.24	€1.62	2.25 GHz
Dual Xeon E5 2699 v4	€325	44 / 88	€7.39	€3.69	€1.27	2.2 GHz
Dual EPYC 9554	€1,049	128 / 256	€8.20	€4.10	€2.05	3.1 GHz
Dual Xeon E5 2690 v4	€249	28 / 56	€8.89	€4.45	€1.95	2.6 GHz
Dual Xeon E5 2630 v3	€225	16 / 32	€14.06	€7.03	€1.76	2.4 GHz
Dual EPYC 9254	€739	48 / 96	€15.40	€7.70	€2.89	2.9 GHz
Single EPYC 9254	€485	24 / 48	€20.21	€10.10	€3.79	2.9 GHz

Every CPU here runs two threads per core, so the order per core and per thread is identical. Per GB of RAM the order changes, and the Dual Xeon E5 2699 v4 leads at €1.27.

The top two rows pair a 2023 AMD design with a 2016 Intel one, so similar prices per core hide very different cores. The lowest monthly bill, €225 for the Dual Xeon E5 2630 v3, ranks only fifth per core.

Cores vs threads: why a thread is not a core

A physical core is a full set of execution units with its own L1 and L2 cache. Simultaneous multithreading (SMT, which Intel calls Hyper Threading) lets one core keep two threads in flight and issue instructions from both, so the operating system sees two logical CPUs per core. Both threads share the same execution units and caches.

SMT helps when one thread leaves the core idle, for example while it waits on memory. Compilers, busy web servers and mixed batch jobs often gain throughput from the second thread. Tight numerical loops gain little, and a latency sensitive process can slow down when a busy sibling shares its core. The gain depends on the workload, so measure your own job.

The rule: compare price per core when work is latency bound, such as a database answering queries or a trading engine. Compare price per thread when work is throughput bound and every logical CPU stays busy, such as builds, test suites or batch encoding. On Linux, lscpu shows sockets, cores per socket and threads per core.

Why the lowest price per thread is not the lowest cost per unit of work

A Broadwell thread at 2.2 GHz and a Zen 4 thread at 2.9 GHz are not the same unit. Five things separate the rows.

• Clock speed. Base clocks run from 2.2 GHz (Xeon E5 2699 v4) to 3.1 GHz (EPYC 9554), and boost reaches 4.15 GHz on the EPYC 9254. A higher clock finishes each serial task sooner.
• CPU generation. The E5 v3 is Haswell EP and the E5 v4 is Broadwell EP, Intel designs from 2014 and 2016. The EPYC 9254 and 9554 are Zen 4 (Genoa). The EPYC 9754 is Zen 4c (Bergamo): the same instruction set with less cache per core, lower clocks and twice the cores per socket. Zen 4 does more work per clock than Broadwell on most code.
• Memory. The Xeons have four DDR4 channels per socket, the EPYC 9004 platform twelve DDR5 channels per socket. Bandwidth depends on how many are populated, but the ceiling is far higher, which matters when 128 cores share one socket.
• Storage. The Xeons ship with one 240 GB SSD, every EPYC with two 1 TB NVMe drives, which cut latency on random reads and writes. See our comparison of SSD and NVMe storage.
• Vector instructions. Haswell and Broadwell stop at AVX2. Every EPYC here supports AVX 512, which helps software built for it, such as some inference runtimes and compression libraries. Our post on running a language model on CPU, VPS or EPYC covers one such workload.

So the Dual EPYC 9754 leads per thread and runs a newer core than the Dual Xeon E5 2699 v4 at a similar base clock, 2.25 GHz against 2.2 GHz. On most code each of its threads should do more work, though how much more depends on the workload.

Three worked choices

A parallel build or test farm

Builds and test suites split into independent jobs, so compare per thread. For around 80 parallel jobs, the Dual Xeon E5 2699 v4 gives you 88 threads for €325 at €3.69 each, ready in about 45 minutes. For hundreds of jobs, the Dual EPYC 9754 gives you 512 threads at €3.24 each, plus NVMe for the small files builds write. Matching it with Xeons takes six servers that cost more in total.

Watch the serial steps. A single threaded link or one long integration test runs on one core, and the 2.25 GHz base clock of the EPYC 9754 stretches them. See our DevOps and CI/CD workload guide.

A database primary

A database primary is usually latency bound: most transactional queries execute on a single core, so clock speed, cache and storage latency decide response time. That favours the Single EPYC 9254 despite its €20.21 per core: 24 Zen 4 cores boosting to 4.15 GHz, 128 MB of L3 cache (with the Dual EPYC 9254, the most L3 per core in the range), 128 GB of DDR5 and two 1 TB NVMe drives on one socket, so no memory access crosses to a second CPU. Outgrow 128 GB and the Dual EPYC 9254 doubles cores and RAM at €15.40 per core.

Commercial databases are often licensed per core, so fewer, faster cores can cut licence costs (check your licensing). Need it this week? The Dual Xeon E5 2690 v4 ships in about 45 minutes with 28 cores boosting to 3.5 GHz for €249. Order a larger SSD array, as the included 240 GB drive is small for production data. More in our database server workload guide.

A virtualisation host that runs out of RAM first

A hypervisor can overcommit CPU, because idle guests leave cores free, but memory cannot be overcommitted far without ballooning or swapping. Many virtualisation hosts fill their RAM first, which makes price per GB the number to compare. The Dual Xeon E5 2699 v4 leads at €1.27 per GB, with 256 GB and 88 threads for €325. The Dual EPYC 9754 is next at €1.62 and is the pick when you want 1 TB of DDR5 in one box.

Proxmox VE 8.4 and 9.x are on the checkout OS list, and memory upgrades are quoted per server, so ask support before ordering. Read when you need a virtualisation host for the wider decision.

Physical cores vs vCPU: how a VPS compares

Our Titan KVM VPS costs €64 a month for 8 vCPU, or €8 per vCPU, and Ion costs €4.50 for 1 vCPU (Romania base prices, other locations add a small fee). Six of the seven dedicated servers come in under €8 per thread and four under €4.50. That comparison flatters dedicated hardware, for two reasons.

First, a VPS vCPU is a scheduled thread on a shared host, not a reserved core, so it can wait when other guests are busy. Every thread on a dedicated server is yours alone. Second, the dedicated price buys every core at once: a VPS sells 1 to 8 vCPU, while dedicated starts at €225 a month for 32 threads.

If your workload fits in 8 vCPU, a KVM VPS is usually the sensible buy. If you need more than that, or Proxmox, Windows Server (check your licensing) or steady performance under sustained load, go dedicated. The full comparison is in VPS vs dedicated servers for business.

What the monthly price includes, and what costs extra

Every dedicated price in the table includes:

• A guaranteed 1 Gbps unmetered port
• 1 Tbps always on DDoS protection at L3/L4
• One usable IPv4 address
• Full root or administrator access and the OS you pick at checkout
• No setup fee, and the same price in all 11 countries we serve

Faster guaranteed ports (2, 5, 10, 20 Gbps and more on the EPYCs), extra IPv4 addresses and larger SSD or NVMe arrays cost extra each month.

The three Xeons are ready in about 45 minutes. The four EPYCs are built to order and take about 14 days, so if you need capacity this week, choose a Xeon.

Questions we get

Which configuration has the lowest price per core?

The Dual EPYC 9754, at €6.48 per core and €3.24 per thread, for €1,659 a month with 256 cores, 512 threads and 1 TB of DDR5. The cheapest dedicated server per core that ships in about 45 minutes is the Dual Xeon E5 2699 v4 at €7.39.

Does annual billing lower the price per core?

No. Annual billing is twelve times the monthly price, and the price is the same in all 11 countries, so the table holds for any term and location.

Can I switch off SMT to use only physical cores?

Yes. With root access, add nosmt to the kernel command line or write the word off to /sys/devices/system/cpu/smt/control. Your price per core stays the same, and some latency sensitive workloads run steadier. Measure both ways.

Next step: read the column your workload uses

Decide whether your workload is limited by single core speed, total threads or memory, then read that column in the table. Every configuration, with delivery estimates and checkout options, is on the dedicated servers page.