A 4 GB RAM VPS from different providers can perform very differently under load. The difference often comes down to whether the RAM is guaranteed or burstable.
This guide is about the kind of RAM you get. To work out how much you need, and to check what your server uses now, see how much RAM your VPS needs.
Guaranteed RAM
What it is: Physical RAM allocated exclusively to your VM. Even if you only use 1 GB of your 4 GB allocation, those 4 GB are reserved and unavailable to other VMs on the same host.
Performance: Consistent. Memory access times are predictable.
Typical pricing: Higher cost per GB.
KVM virtualisation with dedicated RAM = guaranteed RAM. This is what Space-Node VPS provides: the RAM in your plan is dedicated to your VPS, while the vCores are shared with the other VPSes on the node.
Burstable RAM (OpenVZ / Container-based)
What it is: RAM that is primarily allocated to you, but excess capacity on the host is shared across multiple VMs. Your 4 GB "guaranteed" might be 1 GB hard-committed, with up to 4 GB available to burst into when other VMs on the host are idle.
Performance: Excellent when the host is quiet. Degraded under host contention: when all VMs need memory simultaneously, yours gets throttled back to committed allocation.
Typical pricing: Lower cost per GB of stated allocation.
How to Identify Your RAM Type
# Check virtualisation type
systemd-detect-virt
# kvm = KVM (usually guaranteed)
# openvz or lxc = container (often burstable)
# On OpenVZ, check committed vs. theoretical RAM:
cat /proc/user_beancounters | grep -E "physpages|oomguarpages"
Implications for Game Servers
Game servers (Minecraft, Rust, FiveM) need RAM to be consistently available. A Minecraft server configured for 4 GB JVM heap will crash if the operating system can't satisfy that allocation during garbage collection cycles.
On burstable RAM:
- The server runs fine during off-peak hours
- Under host contention (hosting hour peaks), random crashes occur
- These crashes appear to be "memory errors" but are actually resource starvation
The diagnosis: If your server crashes at predictable times (weekends, evenings) but runs fine overnight, suspect RAM starvation from burstable allocation.
Space-Node's Standard VPS plans can be ordered from €4.99 a month and Premium VPS plans from €4.20 a month. The VPS page shows the current status.