SQL Server on Azure VMs makes history with the first audited SQL Server TPC-H result in the cloud!

I am thrilled to share that SQL Server 2025 running on an Azure F64amds_v7 virtual machine, an AMD EPYC-based offering, has achieved an audited TPC-H result of 1,667,428 QphH@1000GB¹. This is the first official, audited TPC-H result for SQL Server on cloud infrastructure! This is currently the top performing result for SQL Server on the TPC-H 1,000 GB benchmark.

Why this TPC-H benchmark is different

We do a lot of performance testing here at Microsoft. If you've read our previous blogs, you've seen us use various tools like HammerDB to run TPC style workloads against different VM sizes and storage configurations, and you've probably noticed the footnote at the bottom explaining that those results aren't comparable to published TPC benchmarks. Those studies are super useful for comparing VM series and storage options, but they don't carry the same weight as an audited, industry-standard benchmark.

That's what makes this result different. The TPC (Transaction Processing Performance Council) defines a strict set of rules for how a benchmark must be run, priced, and documented so that results from different vendors and platforms can be fairly compared. Every published result must be reviewed by an independent TPC auditor, and the full disclosure report is made available to anyone who wants to dig into the details. SQL Server has been a fixture on the TPC results lists for decades because of the way it can push a system to its limits, and SQL Server TPC-H results have historically been published on physical hardware.

Getting an audited TPC-H benchmark on a cloud VM was not a small undertaking. The TPC specifications were written with on-premises, OEM hardware in mind, so it took years of work with the auditor to determine how to run and price a benchmark on a cloud VM while still adhering to every standard. One important part of that work was proving that cloud infrastructure could meet the same durability expectations as traditional hardware. The TPC benchmark includes tests for ACID compliance to guarantee that the system is durable as well as fast. For SQL Server, that means an acknowledged write must remain durable not just at the database layer, but across every layer involved in the write path: Windows, the Azure platform, and the underlying storage devices. The audit forced us to explain that end-to-end durability chain, including how the platform protects committed data through failure and recovery scenarios. In that sense, the benchmark was not only a performance proof point, but also an externally audited validation that Azure’s storage architecture can support the reliability expectations of enterprise SQL Server workloads.

The results for the TPC-H benchmark

We started planning this more than three years ago, and it's so cool to finally see it posted on the TPC website!

Here's a look at the system configuration and results¹:

Check that out! That's a single virtual machine in the cloud chewing through a 1 TB decision-support workload at more than 1.6 million queries per hour on the composite TPC-H performance metric. So, what’s special about Azure F64amds_v7? Featuring the AMD EPYC CPUs, with 64 full physical cores, SQL Server workloads get the much-needed platform capabilities to power through even the most complicated, compute-hungry queries. It's a great demonstration of just how far SQL Server on Azure VMs has come. You can find every last detail in the Executive Summary and Full Disclosure Report on the TPC website.

What this means for you

For years, we've been telling customers that moving SQL Server to Azure doesn't mean giving up performance. Many of you have some of your most demanding, mission-critical SQL Server workloads still running on-premises, often because of a lingering worry that the cloud just can't keep up with a big, beefy on-prem server. Now we have an independently audited, industry-standard benchmark showing that it absolutely can!

If you've been holding back on modernizing your largest SQL Server workloads because of performance concerns, this is a great time to take another look. SQL Server on Azure VMs gives you the same SQL Server engine you know and love, full control over the OS and instance, and the performance to handle your heaviest workloads, plus all the value-add capabilities of the SQL IaaS Agent extension and the flexibility to scale as your needs change. For workloads that need deep OS control, instance-level compatibility, or a straightforward migration path, Azure VMs continue to be a great option.

A word about SQL Server price-performance

You may have noticed the price-performance number in the table above and thought "wait a minute, I thought Azure had the best price-performance for SQL Server?!" That's a fair question, and since price-performance is a topic near and dear to my heart, I want to address it head on.

To keep results comparable, TPC has strict rules about how a benchmarked system is priced, and some of those rules don't map neatly to how customers actually pay for SQL Server in Azure:

• Pricing must be publicly available list pricing. That means we couldn't take advantage of Azure Hybrid Benefit, which many of you use to bring your existing Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance to Azure.
• SQL Server licensing was priced as three years of pay-as-you-go. Traditional on-premises benchmark results typically price license-only SQL Server, amortized over three years. In this result, SQL Server licensing accounts for roughly two-thirds of the total three-year system cost of $930,701. The VM compute itself is only about 7%.
• The storage was provisioned for the maximum capability of the VM. The Premium SSD v2 disks were configured with more IOPS than the TPC-H workload needed, and with Premium SSD v2, you pay for the IOPS and throughput you provision.

In the real world, you have a lot more flexibility: Azure Hybrid Benefit, reservations or savings plans, right-sizing your Premium SSD v2 storage for the IOPS and throughput your workload actually needs (and scaling it up or down on the fly!), and choosing the right VM series and size for your workload. Also keep in mind that Azure costs account for things like electricity, datacenter space, infrastructure management etc. – things you need to worry about on-premises that aren’t accounted for in the benchmark pricing.

So, while the published TPC price-performance number is important for benchmark comparability, it isn't a recipe for what a customer's optimized Azure deployment should cost.

As with any SQL Server question, the answer to "what will it cost me?" is "it depends," and we'll be digging into exactly that in an upcoming blog on how to optimize the price-performance of high-performance SQL Server workloads on Azure VMs. Stay tuned!

What's next

This is just the beginning! Be sure to check out the full result on the TPC website, and keep an eye out for an upcoming episode of Data Exposed where we'll dig deeper into the benchmark and what it means for your SQL Server workloads. And as always, stay tuned as we continue to deliver innovations that make Azure the best place to run SQL Server!

¹ Result referenced is current as of October 12, 2026. Azure F64amds_v7 Virtual Machine: 1,667,428 QphH@1000GB, $558.17 USD/kQphH@1000GB, available 10/06/26. TPC Benchmark™, TPC-H™, and QphH™ are trademarks of the Transaction Processing Performance Council. For more information, visit www.tpc.org.

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