i3.metal as an EKS node
64 vCPU488 GiBx86_64Intel Xeon E5-2686 v4 (Broadwell)AWS us-east-1I3 High I/O Metal
Where the i3.metal goes
Default EKS setup: EKS, prefix delegation.
CPU63.57 of 64 vCPU left for your pods
Memory484.67 GiB of 488 GiB left for your pods
your podsDaemonSets (200m, 300 MiB assumed)kubelet reservedeviction
250max pods per node
$3,644.16on demand / month · $4.99/h
i3.metal EKS max pods and allocatable memory — quick answers
- How many pods can a i3.metal run as a node with EKS, prefix delegation? Up to 250; kubelet keeps 3105 MiB of memory and 230m CPU, leaving 484.97 GiB and 63.77 vCPU for pods.
- How many 500m / 1 GiB pods fit? 127 per node after DaemonSets; 1 nodes for 10 replicas, about $3,644.16/month on demand.
What kubelet reserves on i3.metal
| Setup | Max pods | kube-reserved CPU | Memory reserved + eviction | Allocatable CPU | Allocatable memory | Memory usable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EKS, prefix delegation ENABLE_PREFIX_DELEGATION=true | 250 | 230m | 3005 Mi + 100 Mi | 63.77 | 484.97 GiB | 99.4% |
How these numbers are computed: reservation formulas. How many subnet IPs a i3.metal takes with the VPC CNI: EKS max pods and IP calculator. Check a live node with kubectl describe node → Allocatable.
How many pods fit on one i3.metal
Assumes DaemonSets (CNI, kube-proxy, log and metrics agents) request 200m CPU, 300 Mi and 3 pods per node. Try your own numbers in the node calculator.
| Pod requests (CPU / memory) | EKS, prefix delegation | $ per pod / month |
|---|---|---|
| 100m / 128 Mi | 247 | $14.75 |
| 250m / 256 Mi | 247 | $14.75 |
| 250m / 512 Mi | 247 | $14.75 |
| 500m / 512 Mi | 127 | $28.69 |
| 500m / 1024 Mi | 127 | $28.69 |
| 1000m / 1024 Mi | 63 | $57.84 |
| 1000m / 2048 Mi | 63 | $57.84 |
| 2000m / 4096 Mi | 31 | $117.55 |
| 4000m / 8192 Mi | 15 | $242.94 |
Similar EKS node types
| Type | vCPU | GiB | Alloc CPU | Alloc memory | Max pods | $/month | $ per alloc GiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| r4.16xlarge | 64 | 488 | 63.77 | 479.74 GiB | 737 | $3,106.88 | $6.48 |
| i3.16xlarge | 64 | 488 | 63.77 | 479.74 GiB | 737 | $3,644.16 | $7.60 |
| r6g.16xlarge | 64 | 512 | 63.77 | 503.74 GiB | 737 | $2,354.69 | $4.67 |
| r6g.metal | 64 | 512 | 63.77 | 503.74 GiB | 737 | $2,354.69 | $4.67 |
| r7g.16xlarge | 64 | 512 | 63.77 | 503.74 GiB | 737 | $2,501.86 | $4.97 |
| r7g.metal | 64 | 512 | 63.77 | 503.74 GiB | 737 | $2,501.86 | $4.97 |
| r5a.16xlarge | 64 | 512 | 63.77 | 503.74 GiB | 737 | $2,639.68 | $5.24 |
| r6a.16xlarge | 64 | 512 | 63.77 | 503.74 GiB | 737 | $2,649.02 | $5.26 |
Closest match on other clouds
| Type | vCPU | GiB | Alloc CPU | Alloc memory | Max pods | $/month | $ per alloc GiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c4d-highmem-64 | 64 | 504 | 63.77 | 487.06 GiB | 110 | $2,908.84 | $5.97 |
| e64sv4 | 64 | 504 | 63.26 | 498.97 GiB | 250 | $2,943.36 | $5.90 |
| e64v4 | 64 | 504 | 63.26 | 498.97 GiB | 250 | $2,943.36 | $5.90 |
| c4d-highmem-64-lssd | 64 | 504 | 63.77 | 487.06 GiB | 110 | $3,268.84 | $6.71 |
| e64dsv4 | 64 | 504 | 63.26 | 498.97 GiB | 250 | $3,363.84 | $6.74 |
| e64dv4 | 64 | 504 | 63.26 | 498.97 GiB | 250 | $3,363.84 | $6.74 |