diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 36db6a3960..4697568cc4 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -105,14 +105,23 @@ commands:
     steps:
       - run:
           name: "Test low-variance benchmarks"
-          command: ./tools/benchmark_ci.py --db_dir /tmp/rocksdb-benchmark-datadir --output_dir /tmp/benchmark-results --num_keys 10000000
+          command: ./tools/benchmark_ci.py --db_dir /tmp/rocksdb-benchmark-datadir --output_dir /tmp/benchmark-results --num_keys 50000
           environment:
             LD_LIBRARY_PATH: /usr/local/lib
             # How long to run parts of the test(s)
-            DURATION_RO: 450
-            DURATION_RW: 450
+            DURATION_RO: 400
+            DURATION_RW: 700
+            # Keep threads within physical capacity of server (much lower than default)
+            NUM_THREADS: 1
+            MAX_BACKGROUND_JOBS: 3
+            # Don't run a couple of "optional" initial tests
+            CI_TESTS_ONLY: "true"
+            # Reduce configured size of levels to ensure more levels in the leveled compaction LSM tree
+            WRITE_BUFFER_SIZE_MB: 16
+            TARGET_FILE_SIZE_BASE_MB: 16
+            MAX_BYTES_FOR_LEVEL_BASE_MB: 64
             # The benchmark host has 32GB memory
-            # The folllowing values are tailored to work with that
+            # The following values are tailored to work with that
             # Note, tests may not exercise the targeted issues if the memory is increased on new test hosts.
 
 
diff --git a/tools/benchmark_ci.py b/tools/benchmark_ci.py
index efe18963ae..0a82af55e3 100755
--- a/tools/benchmark_ci.py
+++ b/tools/benchmark_ci.py
@@ -46,7 +46,8 @@ class Config:
                           'USE_O_DIRECT',
                           'STATS_INTERVAL_SECONDS',
                           'SUBCOMPACTIONS',
-                          'COMPACTION_STYLE']
+                          'COMPACTION_STYLE',
+                          'CI_TESTS_ONLY']
 
 
 def read_version(config):
diff --git a/tools/benchmark_compare.sh b/tools/benchmark_compare.sh
index 9adea432ce..964b71cf4a 100755
--- a/tools/benchmark_compare.sh
+++ b/tools/benchmark_compare.sh
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ num_threads=${NUM_THREADS:-16}
 key_size=${KEY_SIZE:-20}
 value_size=${VALUE_SIZE:-400}
 mb_write_per_sec=${MB_WRITE_PER_SEC:-2}
+ci_tests_only=${CI_TESTS_ONLY:-"false"}
 
 # RocksDB configuration
 compression_type=${COMPRESSION_TYPE:-lz4}
@@ -157,6 +158,7 @@ function usage {
   echo -e "\tSTATS_INTERVAL_SECONDS\t\tvalue for stats_interval_seconds"
   echo -e "\tSUBCOMPACTIONS\t\t\tvalue for subcompactions"
   echo -e "\tCOMPACTION_STYLE\t\tCompaction style to use, one of: leveled, universal, blob"
+  echo -e "\tCI_TESTS_ONLY\t\tRun a subset of tests tailored to a CI regression job, one of: true, false (default)"
   echo ""
   echo -e "\tOptions specific to leveled compaction:"
   echo -e "\t\tLEVEL0_FILE_NUM_COMPACTION_TRIGGER\tvalue for level0_file_num_compaction_trigger"
@@ -257,8 +259,15 @@ for v in "$@" ; do
   # was used during the load.
 
   env -i "${args_nolim[@]}" DURATION="$duration_ro" bash ./benchmark.sh readrandom
-  env -i "${args_nolim[@]}" DURATION="$duration_ro" bash ./benchmark.sh fwdrange
-  env -i "${args_lim[@]}"   DURATION="$duration_ro" bash ./benchmark.sh multireadrandom
+
+  # Skipped for CI - a single essentail readrandom is enough to set up for other tests
+  if [ "$ci_tests_only" != "true" ]; then
+    env -i "${args_nolim[@]}" DURATION="$duration_ro" bash ./benchmark.sh fwdrange
+    env -i "${args_lim[@]}"   DURATION="$duration_ro" bash ./benchmark.sh multireadrandom
+  else
+    echo "CI_TESTS_ONLY is set, skipping optional read steps."
+  fi
+
   # Skipping --multiread_batched for now because it isn't supported on older 6.X releases
   # env "${args_lim[@]}" DURATION=$duration_ro bash ./benchmark.sh multireadrandom --multiread_batched