diff --git a/inventory/host_vars/openqa-x86-worker03.iad2.fedoraproject.org b/inventory/host_vars/openqa-x86-worker03.iad2.fedoraproject.org
index d15ca455aa..748605cac4 100644
--- a/inventory/host_vars/openqa-x86-worker03.iad2.fedoraproject.org
+++ b/inventory/host_vars/openqa-x86-worker03.iad2.fedoraproject.org
@@ -58,8 +58,8 @@ nrpe_procs_crit: 1600
 nrpe_procs_warn: 1400
 # Has a hardware RNG
 openqa_rngd: true
-# this machines has 48 CPUs, 22 is our "just under half the number of
-# CPUs" rule-of-thumb, but it seems to be running out of memory so
+# this machines has 24 CPUs, 22 is our "just under one worker per
+# CPU" rule-of-thumb, but it seems to be running out of memory so
 # cut to 20
 openqa_workers: 20
 sudoers: "{{ private }}/files/sudo/qavirt-sudoers"
diff --git a/inventory/host_vars/openqa-x86-worker05.iad2.fedoraproject.org b/inventory/host_vars/openqa-x86-worker05.iad2.fedoraproject.org
index 92b31f77f4..adae21e026 100644
--- a/inventory/host_vars/openqa-x86-worker05.iad2.fedoraproject.org
+++ b/inventory/host_vars/openqa-x86-worker05.iad2.fedoraproject.org
@@ -59,8 +59,10 @@ nrpe_procs_warn: 1400
 # Has a hardware RNG
 openqa_rngd: true
 openqa_tap_iface: em1
-# this is a powerful machine, can handle more openQA workers
-openqa_workers: 30
+# this machines has 24 CPUs, 22 is our "just under one worker per
+# CPU" rule-of-thumb, but it seems to be running out of memory so
+# cut to 20
+openqa_workers: 20
 sudoers: "{{ private }}/files/sudo/qavirt-sudoers"
 # firewall ports for server->worker websockets connections
 # this port is 'QEMUPORT plus 1'
diff --git a/inventory/inventory b/inventory/inventory
index c96e60274d..03c690cd4f 100644
--- a/inventory/inventory
+++ b/inventory/inventory
@@ -443,9 +443,13 @@ odcs_backend
 openqa01.iad2.fedoraproject.org
 
 [openqa_workers]
+# xeon gold 5218 (best)
 openqa-x86-worker01.iad2.fedoraproject.org
+# xeon gold 6130 (second best)
 openqa-x86-worker02.iad2.fedoraproject.org
-openqa-x86-worker03.iad2.fedoraproject.org
+# swapped from lab as 03 is kinda poorly
+# xeon e5-2683v4 (third best)
+openqa-x86-worker06.iad2.fedoraproject.org
 openqa-a64-worker02.iad2.fedoraproject.org
 openqa-a64-worker03.iad2.fedoraproject.org
 
@@ -457,9 +461,15 @@ openqa-lab01.iad2.fedoraproject.org
 openqa-a64-worker01.iad2.fedoraproject.org
 openqa-p09-worker01.iad2.fedoraproject.org
 openqa-p09-worker02.iad2.fedoraproject.org
+# xeon gold 6130 (second best)
 openqa-x86-worker04.iad2.fedoraproject.org
+# xeon e5-2680 (worst)
 openqa-x86-worker05.iad2.fedoraproject.org
-openqa-x86-worker06.iad2.fedoraproject.org
+# prod used to have 01, 02, 03 and lab had 04, 05, 06 which was nice
+# and clean, but 03 is weaker hardware and seems to be struggling
+# lately, so we swapped 03 and 06 to give prod the best hw
+# xeon e5-2680 (worst)
+openqa-x86-worker03.iad2.fedoraproject.org
 
 # the workers that can run networked jobs. each server should have *one* of these per arch
 # per tap worker class defined in os-autoinst-distri-fedora (currently there are two