Rethinking PostgreSQL Performance in the Age of Monster Hardware

Presented by Lætitia Avrot at PGConf.dev 2025 In an era where single servers boast terabytes of RAM, ultra-fast SSDs, and CPUs with hundreds of threads, the conventional wisdom of horizontal scaling often feels outdated. Why distribute load across a cluster when a single machine can handle it all? This talk explores how modern hardware advancements challenge the traditional emphasis on horizontal scaling and highlight the untapped potential of vertical scaling, particularly for PostgreSQL workloads. We’ll explore how PostgreSQL leverages today’s powerful hardware, including its interaction with the operating system, its approach to parallelism, and its handling of memory and IO. By understanding these dynamics, attendees will gain insights into how PostgreSQL can be optimized to fully exploit the capabilities of modern servers, making vertical scaling a practical and powerful approach. Corrections: Slide 7: L3 cache is shared among cores within each chiplet, not partitioned per core Slide 13, 14: 384 threads https://www.pgevents.ca/events/pgconfdev2025/schedule/session/376-rethinking-postgresql-performance-in-the-age-of-monster-hardware/