Compute Specifications

StarSling offers two runner families: CPU runners on 5th Gen AMD EPYC processors, and GPU runners backed by NVIDIA cards. Choose a runner based on the compute resources your job requires.

CPU Specifications

The numeric suffix on each label indicates the vCPU count (e.g. -8 = 8 vCPU). The label without a suffix is the 4 vCPU default and replaces ubuntu-latest and ubuntu-24.04.

All sizes run Ubuntu 24.04 on 5th Gen AMD EPYC.

GPU Specifications

All cards are NVIDIA. Prices are all-in: each rate covers the GPU and the host it runs on, billed per minute like any other runner.

Selecting a card

The gpus= selector takes a card SKU and a card count, gpus=<sku>:<count>. While GPU runners are in beta they are single-card, so the count is always 1.

starsling-ubuntu-24.04-gpu is shorthand for the default card — it is equivalent to starsling-ubuntu-24.04-gpu/gpus=rtx-pro-6000:1. See the Label Reference for the full label grammar and the list of card SKUs.

Performance Characteristics

StarSling runners deliver excellent performance for most CI workloads:

• Web Applications (React, Next.js, Vue): Fast installs and builds
• Backend Services (Go, Rust, Java): Efficient parallel compilation
• Test Suites: Parallel test execution

Larger sizes (8 vCPU and above) are well-suited for monorepo builds, large test matrices, and compilation-heavy workloads.

Example Usage

runs-on: starsling-ubuntu-24.04

For a larger size:

runs-on: starsling-ubuntu-24.04-8

On a GPU runner:

runs-on: starsling-ubuntu-24.04-gpu

To pick a specific card:

runs-on: starsling-ubuntu-24.04-gpu/gpus=rtx-5090:1

Optimization Tips

1. Cache dependencies: Use actions/cache to avoid repeated downloads
2. Use matrix builds: Split tests across multiple runners for parallelism
3. Right-size your runner: Larger isn't always better — measure before scaling up