When to choose x86-64 vs aarch64

Choosing between aarch64 (ARM) and x86-64 for a PlanetScale Postgres or Neki database can significantly affect performance, cost, and future migration options despite identical advertised vCPU and memory allocations. ARM server processors provide one physical core per vCPU, making them well suited to concurrent workloads with many smaller queries, parallel workers, and autovacuum activity, while x86 instances often expose hyperthreads as vCPUs and may offer stronger single-core performance for CPU-bound queries. x86 can also benefit workloads using wide AVX2 or AVX-512 vector instructions, including some full-text search and pgvector operations, whereas current ARM cloud chips use narrower vectors. CPU architectures cannot be changed in place because PostgreSQL physical replication depends on byte-identical storage files whose interpretation can vary between architectures, so switching requires creating a new cluster and migrating data through logical replication. ARM is presented as a cost-effective default for typical read-and-write applications, while x86 merits consideration for workloads dominated by a small number of intensive queries; testing equivalent workloads on both architectures under expected concurrency is recommended before making a long-term choice.

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