Azure PlayFab Multiplayer Servers improves price/performance ratio for game server hosting with new AMD virtual machines
Azure PlayFab Multiplayer Servers (MPS) just got even more attractive for game developers with the introduction of new AMD virtual machines that deliver a 5-40% improvement in performance at lower cost. New general purpose Dav4 and Dasv4 SKUs provide the best price/performance ratio on MPS.
- Memory optimized Eav4 and Easv4 SKUs are great for memory-intensive applications
- Migrating to AMD virtual machines is fast and easy, requiring no code changes.
- Customers who made the switch have seen clear performance improvements and cost savings.
Accessing the new AMD SKUs are the same for EXISTING and NEW PlayFab customers. (1) Customers can quickly and easily request AMD VMs quota from the Game Manager's Quota Summary page here https://docs.microsoft.com/gaming/playfab/features/multiplayer/servers/quota-changes. (2) Once enabled, customers can simply select the AMD VMs in the VM selection list of their game server in the New Build page here https://docs.microsoft.com/ gaming/playfab/features/multiplayer/servers/deploying-playfab-multiplayer-server-builds.
AMD Dav4 and Dasv4 SKUs offer improved price/performance ratio
The Azure Virtual Machine Dav4 and Dasv4 series feature the AMD 2.35Ghz EPYCTM 7452 2nd Generation processor in a multi-threaded configuration with up to 256 MB L3 cache, and each 8 cores have 8 MB of dedicated L3 cache. The Dav4-series sizes offer a combination of vCPU, memory and temporary storage that is suitable for most gaming workloads. The Dasv4 Azure VMs expose up to 96 vCPUs, 384 GBs of RAM, and 768 GBs of SSD-based storage. Furthermore, the Azure Performance Improvement team has tuned Dasv4 VMs to be the most stable, delivering the best price/performance ratio of all Azure VM sizes with no code changes needed.
As a result, the Dasv4 is now the recommended SKU for running game servers in Azure.
You can view the updated rates on the Pricing page at https://playfab.com/pricing.
Game teams see success switching to Dasv4
In preparation for general availability, internal teams across Microsoft services and Xbox Game Studios have been moving to Dasv4 since September:
“Switching to Dasv4 was a non-event for us, in that it Just Worked from the start. We didn’t have to change any code, and we immediately saw improved performance over Fsv2. One of the biggest benefits of Dasv4 was having twice the memory available, which helped alleviate some bottlenecks we previously had when running many server instances per VM.” --- Kedar Hirve, Principal Software Engineer – PlayFab Party
”Working with PlayFab and Azure, we were able to migrate from Dv2/Fsv2 to Dasv4 for our multiplayer servers with minimal engineering time. The Dasv4 servers have more memory per core, better performance, and a lower price, allowing us to deliver a better experience to our players while lowering our costs.” --- Gears 5 Services Team, The Coalition
AMD Eav4 and Easv4 SKUs provide improved memory optimized workloads at economical costs
The Eav4 and Easv4-series utilize AMD's 2.35Ghz EPYCTM 7452 processor in a multi-threaded configuration with up to 256MB L3 cache, increasing options for running most memory optimized workloads. The Eav4-series and Easv4-series have the same memory and disk configurations as the Ev3 and Esv3-series, and are ideal for memory-intensive applications.
Recommendation
For customers currently on the Dv2, Fsv2 and Dv3 VMs, we highly recommend switching to Dav4 or Dasv4 as they offers the best ratio of price to CPU performance and more memory than the Fsv2. Below is a comparison of the PlayFab Multiplayer Servers 2 core SKUs. Prices are approximate as they vary based on the region selected.
| SKU | CPU | RAM (GB) | Storage (GB) | Azure Compute Unit (ACU)* | Approx. Price per ACU vs D2v2 |
| D2av4 | AMD EPYCTM 7452 | 8 | 50 | 230-260 | -38% |
| E2av4 | AMD EPYCTM 7452 | 16 | 50 | 230-260 | -19% |
| F2sv2 | Intel Xeon® Platinum 8168 (SkyLake) | 4 | 16 | 195-210 | -37% |
| D2v3 | Intel Xeon® E5-2673 v3 (Haswell) processor or E5-2673 v4 (Broadwell) | 8 | 50 | 160-190 | -14% |
| D2v2 | Intel Xeon® E5-2673 v3 (Haswell) processor or E5-2673 v4 (Broadwell) | 8 | 100 | 210-250 | 0% |
| A2v2 | Various | 4 | 20 | 100 | +51% |
*Learn more about ACU here