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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

Size

CPU Cores

Memory

Temporary Disk (SSD)

Premium Storage Cache Size

Max Network Bandwidth

Standard_F1s

1

2 GB

4 GB

12 GB

moderate

Standard_F2s

2

4 GB

8 GB

24 GB

high

Standard_F4s

4

8 GB

16 GB

48 GB

high

Standard_F8s

8

16 GB

32 GB

96 GB

high

Standard_F16s

16

32 GB

64 GB

192 GB

very high

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.

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