AWS launches Graviton5-powered R9g cloud instances
Wed, 2nd Sep 2026 (Today)
Amazon Web Services has made its Amazon EC2 R9g and R9gd instances generally available. The new instances use AWS Graviton5 processors.
The launch expands AWS's line-up of Arm-based cloud servers for memory-intensive workloads, with the new range positioned as an upgrade to the earlier R8g generation.
R9g is the standard memory-focused version, while R9gd adds local NVMe-based solid-state storage for workloads that need low-latency local access. The new instances target databases, in-memory caches, analytics workloads and Linux-based applications, including containerised services.
R9g delivers up to 25% higher compute performance per virtual CPU than Graviton4-based R8g instances, according to AWS. The company also cited faster DDR5 memory, a larger L3 cache, and higher networking and Amazon EBS bandwidth on the largest sizes.
The top-end 48xlarge configuration offers up to 100 Gbps of network bandwidth and up to 72 Gbps of EBS bandwidth, according to published specifications. AWS is offering both the standard virtualised format and a metal version for customers that want direct access to the full physical server.
Each of the R9g and R9gd families is available in 11 sizes, from medium to metal-48xl. The largest options provide 192 vCPUs and 1,536 GiB of memory, placing the range in the market for large databases, caching layers and memory-heavy analytics systems.
Storage is one of the main distinctions between the two variants. R9g instances are EBS-only, while R9gd includes local NVMe SSD storage ranging from 59 GB on the smallest size to three 3,800 GB drives on the largest systems.
Hardware changes
AWS said Graviton5 introduces several hardware changes over Graviton4, including DDR5 memory running at 8,800 MT/s, a fivefold increase in L3 cache size, and up to three times higher packet-processing performance.
The largest instance sizes can also provide up to twice the network and EBS bandwidth of the previous generation, according to AWS. That matters for customers running distributed databases or analytics clusters where memory size alone is not enough to avoid network bottlenecks.
Another feature in the new families is Instance Bandwidth Configuration, which lets customers adjust the split between Amazon EBS and Amazon VPC networking bandwidth by 25%. AWS said this is designed for workloads with specific bandwidth needs, including databases and caching applications.
Security focus
All R9g and R9gd instances run on the AWS Nitro System, the company's server architecture that moves virtualisation, storage and networking functions onto dedicated hardware. The new instances also include the Nitro Isolation Engine, which AWS introduced earlier this year with its C9g and M9g ranges.
AWS said the Nitro Isolation Engine enforces separation between virtual machines and controls access to memory, CPU register state and I/O devices through a limited set of interfaces. The company added that the component uses formal verification methods to demonstrate that it behaves as intended.
This work forms part of a broader AWS push to make security and isolation a more visible selling point in its infrastructure products, particularly as more customers place sensitive workloads on shared cloud systems. AWS said the Nitro system is the first cloud hypervisor to be formally verified.
Migration path
Customers already running workloads on R8g instances should be able to move to equivalent R9g sizes without code changes in most cases, according to AWS. Supported operating systems include Amazon Linux 2023, Amazon Linux 2, Ubuntu 22.04 and later, RHEL 8.4 and later, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 and later, and Debian 12 and later.
The new instances also support Amazon EKS, Amazon ECS and standard Kubernetes deployments for containerised workloads. Applications built for Arm64 container images can run without modification, according to AWS.
At launch, the instances are available in US East in Northern Virginia and Ohio, US West in Oregon, and Europe in Frankfurt. Customers can buy them through On-Demand, Spot, Savings Plans, Dedicated Instances and Dedicated Hosts.
Published specifications show that the entry-level r9g.medium starts with 1 vCPU and 8 GiB of memory, while the equivalent r9gd.medium adds 59 GB of local NVMe storage. At the other end of the range, the r9gd.48xlarge and r9gd.metal-48xl include three 3,800 GB NVMe SSDs alongside 192 vCPUs and 1,536 GiB of memory.
The release adds another tier to AWS's Graviton-based portfolio as the cloud provider continues to steer customers towards its in-house Arm processors for general, compute and memory-intensive workloads.