In Azure SQL Database – Hyperscale tier, the Standard-series (Gen5) and Premium-series hardware options differ in CPU architecture, memory, storage throughput, and performance characteristics.

Here’s a clear comparison:

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🧾 Standard-series (Gen5) vs Premium-series in Hyperscale

Feature	Standard-series (Gen5)	Premium-series
CPU	Intel-based (older Gen5 CPUs)	Intel Ice Lake (latest high-performance CPUs)
Memory per vCore	~5.1 GB	~7 GB (more memory per vCore)
I/O Throughput	Standard (good for general-purpose workloads)	Higher IOPS and throughput for intensive workloads
Latency	Moderate	Lower latency, better for real-time apps
Best For	General-purpose workloads, balanced compute/memory	Heavy workloads, analytics, concurrent queries, ML models
Price	Lower	Higher cost (but more performance per vCore)
Auto-scaling	Supported	Supported
Supported Tiers	Hyperscale	Hyperscale

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🔍 Use Case Guidance

Scenario	Recommended Series
OLTP apps, business apps	✅ Standard-series (Gen5)
High concurrency / parallel queries	✅ Premium-series
In-memory workloads / caching	✅ Premium-series
Budget-sensitive environments	✅ Gen5
Large-scale reporting or analytics	✅ Premium-series

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Price-wise comparison between Standard-series (Gen5) and Premium-series in Azure SQL Database – Hyperscale tier

Here’s a price-wise comparison between Standard-series (Gen5) and Premium-series in Azure SQL Database – Hyperscale tier. Prices vary by region and licensing model, but I’ll use approximate pricing in USD for the West US region under the vCore-based model (as of May 2025, pay-as-you-go pricing, license included):

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💰 Hyperscale Price Comparison (Approx. per vCore/hour)

vCore Count	Standard-series (Gen5)	Premium-series
2 vCores	~$0.376/hour	~$0.482/hour
4 vCores	~$0.752/hour	~$0.964/hour
8 vCores	~$1.504/hour	~$1.928/hour
16 vCores	~$3.008/hour	~$3.856/hour
32 vCores	~$6.016/hour	~$7.712/hour
64 vCores	~$12.032/hour	~$15.424/hour

📌 Note: These prices include the SQL license. You can save ~40% using Azure Hybrid Benefit (if you already have SQL Server licenses).

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📊 Monthly Estimation (730 hours)

vCores	Gen5 Monthly	Premium Monthly
4	~$549	~$704
8	~$1,098	~$1,408
16	~$2,196	~$2,816
32	~$4,392	~$5,632

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✅ Key Takeaway

• Premium-series is ~28–30% more expensive than Standard Gen5.
• But it offers ~35–50% more memory, better CPU, and higher IOPS — suitable for high-performance workloads.

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SQL hardware configuration for Azure SQL Database (Hyperscale)

SQL hardware configuration for Azure SQL Database (Hyperscale), here’s a breakdown of the differences between the Standard-series (Gen5) and the Premium-series options:

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🔍 Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Standard-series (Gen5)	Premium-series	Premium-series – Memory Optimized
Description	Balanced memory and compute	Balanced memory and compute (newer CPU)	Higher memory per vCore
Max vCores	80	128	80
Max Memory	415.23 GB	625 GB	830.47 GB
Compute Cost / vCore / Month	$196.98	$196.95	$249.73
CPU Architecture	Intel Broadwell/Haswell (older)	Intel Ice Lake (latest gen)	Intel Ice Lake (optimized for memory)
Use Case	General workloads, good balance	Higher concurrency, newer CPU for same cost	Memory-heavy workloads (analytics, ML, large joins)
Performance-to-Price Ratio	Good	Better than Gen5 (same cost, newer CPU)	Best for high memory needs, but costlier
Storage Limit	Scales independently (Hyperscale)	Same	Same

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✅ Key Takeaways

• Gen5 and Premium-series (non-memory optimized) have almost the same cost per vCore.
• Premium-series offers more memory and vCore scale, so it’s a better deal for most production workloads.
• Memory Optimized Premium is ~27% more expensive, but gives double the memory of Gen5 — great for memory-intensive tasks.

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💡 Recommendation

Scenario	Best Option
Standard OLTP workloads	Standard-series (Gen5)
High-concurrency or CPU-bound workloads	Premium-series
Large analytics, ML models, in-memory operations	Premium-series – Memory Optimized