diff --git a/test/nvme/perf/common.sh b/test/nvme/perf/common.sh
index 97951a0594..13f74f3f17 100755
--- a/test/nvme/perf/common.sh
+++ b/test/nvme/perf/common.sh
@@ -408,7 +408,11 @@ function run_nvme_fio() {
 
 function run_bdevperf() {
 	echo "** Running bdevperf test, this can take a while, depending on the run-time setting."
-	$bdevperf_dir/bdevperf --json $testdir/bdev.conf -q $IODEPTH -o $BLK_SIZE -w $RW -M $MIX -t $RUNTIME -m "[$CPUS_ALLOWED]" -r /var/tmp/spdk.sock
+	local main_core_param=""
+	if [[ -n $MAIN_CORE ]]; then
+		main_core_param="-p ${MAIN_CORE}"
+	fi
+	$bdevperf_dir/bdevperf --json $testdir/bdev.conf -q $IODEPTH -o $BLK_SIZE -w $RW -M $MIX -t $RUNTIME -m "[$CPUS_ALLOWED]" -r /var/tmp/spdk.sock $main_core_param
 	sleep 1
 }
 
diff --git a/test/nvme/perf/run_perf.sh b/test/nvme/perf/run_perf.sh
index 2bb0a76141..6b2af2b76d 100755
--- a/test/nvme/perf/run_perf.sh
+++ b/test/nvme/perf/run_perf.sh
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ IO_BATCH_COMPLETE=0
 FIO_BIN=$CONFIG_FIO_SOURCE_DIR/fio
 FIO_FNAME_STRATEGY="group"
 TMP_RESULT_FILE=$testdir/result.json
+MAIN_CORE=""
 PLUGIN="nvme"
 DISKCFG=""
 BDEV_CACHE=""
@@ -105,6 +106,7 @@ function usage() {
 	echo "    --cpu-frequency=INT     Run tests with CPUs set to a desired frequency. 'intel_pstate=disable' must be set in"
 	echo "                            GRUB options. You can use 'cpupower frequency-info' and 'cpupower frequency-set' to"
 	echo "                            check list of available frequencies. Example: --cpu-frequency=1100000."
+	echo "    --main-core             main (primary) core for DPDK (for bdevperf only)."
 	echo
 	echo "Other options:"
 	echo "    --perftop           Run perftop measurements on the same CPU cores as specified in --cpu-allowed option."
@@ -162,6 +164,7 @@ while getopts 'h-:' optchar; do
 				perftop) PERFTOP=true ;;
 				dpdk-mem-stats) DPDKMEM=true ;;
 				latency-log) LATENCY_LOG=true ;;
+				main-core=*) MAIN_CORE="${OPTARG#*=}" ;;
 				*)
 					usage $0 echo "Invalid argument '$OPTARG'"
 					exit 1