diff --git a/tests/cunit/test_perf2.c b/tests/cunit/test_perf2.c
index e4f1e089ba5..e00193df43b 100644
--- a/tests/cunit/test_perf2.c
+++ b/tests/cunit/test_perf2.c
@@ -30,9 +30,9 @@
 #define NDIM3 3
 
 /* The length of our sample data along each dimension. */
-#define X_DIM_LEN 1024
-#define Y_DIM_LEN 1024
-#define Z_DIM_LEN 128
+#define X_DIM_LEN 128
+#define Y_DIM_LEN 128
+#define Z_DIM_LEN 16
 
 /* The number of timesteps of data to write. */
 #define NUM_TIMESTEPS 10
diff --git a/tests/performance/pioperf.nl b/tests/performance/pioperf.nl
index 29314215b7d..f2064e0cee9 100644
--- a/tests/performance/pioperf.nl
+++ b/tests/performance/pioperf.nl
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
 decompfile=   'BLOCK',
  pio_typenames = 'pnetcdf' 'netcdf4p' 'netcdf4c' 'netcdf'
  rearrangers = 1,2
- nframes = 10
+ nframes = 1
  nvars = 10
  niotasks = 4
- varsize = 10000000
+ varsize = 100000
 /