Today we are announcing 10 additional compute optimized VM sizes. This new series of VMs, called the F-Series, are based on the 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon® E5-2673 v3 (Haswell) processor, which can achieve clock speeds as high as 3.1 GHz with the Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0. This is the same CPU performance as the Dv2-Series of VMs with 2GB of memory per CPU core at a lower per-hour price. This will put the new F-Series as the best value in a price-performance position in Azure based on the list price of F-Series divided by the Azure Compute Unit (ACU) per core. More information on ACU can be found here.
The F-Series VMs are an excellent choice for gaming servers, web servers and batch processing. Any workload which does not need as much memory or local SSD per CPU core will benefit from the value of the F-Series. The F-Series sizes range from one to 16 CPU cores with options for both standard and premium storage optimized sizes.
Standard storage optimized F-Series sizes
| Size | CPU Cores | Memory | Temporary Disk (SSD) | Max Network Bandwidth |
| Standard_F1 | 1 | 2 GB | 16 GB | moderate |
| Standard_F2 | 2 | 4 GB | 32 GB | high |
| Standard_F4 | 4 | 8 GB | 64 GB | high |
| Standard_F8 | 8 | 16 GB | 128 GB | high |
| Standard_F16 | 16 | 32 GB | 256 GB | very high |
Premium storage optimized F-Series sizes
Note: In the tables above 1 GB = 1024^3 bytes
VM size naming
The naming of the F-Series sizes introduces a new standard in VM size naming for Azure. For this series and VM sizes released in the future, the numeric value after the family name letter will match the number of CPU cores. Additional capabilities, such as optimized for premium storage, will be designated by letters following the numeric CPU core count. This naming format will be used for future VM sizes released, but we will not retroactively change the names of any existing VM sizes which have been released.
Geographic availability
At launch the F-Series VMs are available in the following regions. Please check Azure services by region site for future updates to the geographic availability of F-Series.
Regions with premium and standard storage optimized F-Series
- Central US
- East US
- East US 2
- South Central US
- West US
- North Europe
- West Europe
- Southeast Asia
- Japan West
- Central India
- South India
- Canada Central
- Canada East
Regions with only standard storage optimized F-Series
- North Central US
- East Asia
- Japan East
- Australia East
- Australia Southeast
Learn more
For more information on the F-Series and the variety of VM options available in Azure please see Azure sizes for virtual machines documentation.
