Switch to Graviton

Move RDS workloads to Graviton-based instance families where compatible to improve price-performance.

Why it matters

  • AWS offers several generations of Graviton-based instance families for RDS (for example, M6g/R6g on Graviton2, M7g/R7g on Graviton3, and M8g/R8g on Graviton4) for engines such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB.123
  • AWS benchmarks show that Graviton-based instances can deliver better performance and price-performance than comparable x86-based instances for many database workloads, but the benefit is workload- and engine-dependent and should be confirmed with your own testing.3

From a cost perspective, if you already know you need a given instance size and availability pattern, moving that footprint to Graviton is often a low-friction lever to improve price-performance without changing application code. In many cases, Graviton instances are priced lower than equivalent x86 instances for the same compute capacity.

How to switch

  • Check support – Confirm your RDS engine and version support the Graviton family you want (for example, minimum versions for M7g/R7g).2
  • Start with lower-risk instances – Try non-production environments or read replicas first by changing the instance class to a Graviton-based family (for example, db.m7g.large) during a maintenance window.
  • Benchmark before/after – Compare CPU utilization, query latency, and throughput for x86 vs. Graviton under representative load, and compare instance pricing on the RDS pricing page for your region.4
  • Promote gradually – If results look good, cut over primaries during planned windows and keep snapshots or an x86 replica as a rollback path until you are confident in the new configuration.

When Graviton may not be a fit

  • Your database engine or version does not support the Graviton family you want to use.
  • The workload is clearly storage or network bound rather than CPU bound, so changing CPU architecture alone is unlikely to move the needle.
  • You cannot allocate time for even basic workload-level benchmarking and validation.

Rollout checklist

  1. Inventory RDS instances and mark those on supported engines/versions that run 24×7.
  2. Pilot Graviton on non-production or replica instances and gather before/after metrics.
  3. Roll out to primaries in small batches with clear rollback options.
  4. Update standards and IaC templates so new compatible workloads default to Graviton families.
  • Right-size instances – Combine Graviton migration with rightsizing to optimize both instance family and size in a single maintenance window.
  • Reserved Instances – After validating Graviton performance, lock in savings with RIs for stable workloads.

Resources

Footnotes

  1. Announcing preview for Amazon RDS M6g and R6g instance types ↩

  2. Amazon RDS now supports AWS Graviton3-based M7g and R7g database instances ↩ ↩2

  3. Leveling up Amazon RDS with AWS Graviton4 benchmarks ↩ ↩2

  4. Amazon RDS pricing ↩