diff --git a/.github/workflows/nightly-bench.yml b/.github/workflows/nightly-bench.yml
index f2689bc70a4..b89395516be 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/nightly-bench.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/nightly-bench.yml
@@ -72,4 +72,4 @@ jobs:
       matrix:
         machine_type:
           - id: x86
-            instance_name: c6id.8xlarge
+            instance_name: i7i.metal-24xl
diff --git a/.github/workflows/sql-benchmarks.yml b/.github/workflows/sql-benchmarks.yml
index e2da59838e9..8dcb56bceda 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/sql-benchmarks.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/sql-benchmarks.yml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ on:
       machine_type:
         required: false
         type: string
-        default: c6id.8xlarge
+        default: i7i.metal-24xl
       benchmark_matrix:
         required: false
         type: string
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ jobs:
 
     runs-on: >-
       ${{ github.repository == 'vortex-data/vortex'
-          && format('runs-on={0}/runner=bench-dedicated/tag={1}{2}', github.run_id, matrix.id, (inputs.mode != 'pr' || github.event.pull_request.head.repo.fork == false) && '/extras=s3-cache' || '')
+          && format('runs-on={0}/runner=bench-dedicated/instance-type={1}/tag={2}{3}', github.run_id, inputs.machine_type, matrix.id, (inputs.mode != 'pr' || github.event.pull_request.head.repo.fork == false) && '/extras=s3-cache' || '')
           || 'ubuntu-latest' }}
     steps:
       - uses: runs-on/action@v2
diff --git a/scripts/bench-taskset.sh b/scripts/bench-taskset.sh
index a86f6818ab3..4b8d362dd9c 100644
--- a/scripts/bench-taskset.sh
+++ b/scripts/bench-taskset.sh
@@ -18,12 +18,17 @@ fi
 
 
 if [[ -z "${BENCH_CPUS:-}" ]]; then
-    cpu_count="$(nproc)"
-    BENCH_CPUS="2-$((cpu_count - 1))"
+    if command -v numactl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+        # All CPUs on NUMA node 0, skipping CPUs 0-1 to avoid OS interference
+        BENCH_CPUS=$(numactl --hardware | awk '/^node 0 cpus:/{sep=""; for(i=4;i<=NF;i++){if($i+0>1){printf "%s%s",sep,$i; sep=","}}}')
+    else
+        cpu_count="$(nproc)"
+        BENCH_CPUS="2-$((cpu_count - 1))"
+    fi
 fi
 
 if command -v numactl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-    exec numactl --physcpubind="$BENCH_CPUS" --localalloc "$@"
+    exec numactl --physcpubind="$BENCH_CPUS" --membind=0 "$@"
 fi
 
 exec taskset -c "$BENCH_CPUS" "$@"