diff --git a/doc/configuration.txt b/doc/configuration.txt
index c84f7f10c..34b3f1667 100644
--- a/doc/configuration.txt
+++ b/doc/configuration.txt
@@ -1993,16 +1993,17 @@ cpu-policy <policy>
                         if not set, will be set to 1.
 
    - efficiency         exactly like group-by-cluster below, except that CPU
-                        clusters whose performance is more than twice that of
-                        the next less performant one are evicted. These are
-                        typically "big" or "performance" cores. This means that
-                        if more than one type of CPU cores are detected, only
-                        the efficient one will be used. This can make sense for
-                        use with moderate loads when the most powerful cores
-                        need to be available to the application or a security
-                        component. Some modern CPUs have a large number of such
-                        efficient CPU cores which can collectively deliver a
-                        decent level of performance while using less power.
+                        clusters composed of cores whose performance is more
+                        than 25% above that of the next less performant one are
+                        evicted. These are typically "big" or "performance"
+                        cores. This means that if more than one type of CPU
+                        cores are detected, only the efficient one will be
+                        used. This can make sense for use with moderate loads
+                        when the most powerful cores need to be available to
+                        the application or a security component. Some modern
+                        CPUs have a large number of such efficient CPU cores
+                        which can collectively deliver a decent level of
+                        performance while using less power.
 
    - first-usable-node  if the CPUs were not previously restricted at boot (for
                         example using the "taskset" utility), and if the
diff --git a/src/cpu_topo.c b/src/cpu_topo.c
index 759f9fab8..a8019d061 100644
--- a/src/cpu_topo.c
+++ b/src/cpu_topo.c
@@ -1359,7 +1359,7 @@ static int cpu_policy_performance(int policy, int tmin, int tmax, int gmin, int
 
 /* the "efficiency" cpu-policy:
  *  - does nothing if nbthread or thread-groups are set
- *  - eliminates clusters whose total capacity is above half of others
+ *  - eliminates clusters whose average per-cpu capacity is above 80% of others
  *  - tries to create one thread-group per cluster, with as many
  *    threads as CPUs in the cluster, and bind all the threads of
  *    this group to all the CPUs of the cluster.
@@ -1372,22 +1372,25 @@ static int cpu_policy_efficiency(int policy, int tmin, int tmax, int gmin, int g
 	if (global.nbthread || global.nbtgroups)
 		return 0;
 
-	/* sort clusters by reverse capacity */
-	cpu_cluster_reorder_by_capa(ha_cpu_clusters, cpu_topo_maxcpus);
+	/* sort clusters by average reverse capacity */
+	cpu_cluster_reorder_by_avg_capa(ha_cpu_clusters, cpu_topo_maxcpus);
 
 	capa = 0;
 	for (cluster = cpu_topo_maxcpus - 1; cluster >= 0; cluster--) {
-		if (capa && ha_cpu_clusters[cluster].capa > capa * 2) {
-			/* This cluster is more than twice as fast as the
-			 * previous one, we're not interested in using it.
+		if (capa && ha_cpu_clusters[cluster].capa * 8 >= ha_cpu_clusters[cluster].nb_cpu * capa * 10) {
+			/* This cluster is made of cores each at last 25% faster
+			 * than those of the previous cluster, previous one, we're
+			 * not interested in using it.
 			 */
 			for (cpu = 0; cpu <= cpu_topo_lastcpu; cpu++) {
 				if (ha_cpu_topo[cpu].cl_gid == ha_cpu_clusters[cluster].idx)
 					ha_cpu_topo[cpu].st |= HA_CPU_F_IGNORED;
 			}
 		}
+		else if (ha_cpu_clusters[cluster].nb_cpu)
+			capa = ha_cpu_clusters[cluster].capa / ha_cpu_clusters[cluster].nb_cpu;
 		else
-			capa = ha_cpu_clusters[cluster].capa;
+			capa = 0;
 	}
 
 	cpu_cluster_reorder_by_index(ha_cpu_clusters, cpu_topo_maxcpus);