diff --git a/keydb.conf b/keydb.conf
index 04f66f766..55594ef56 100644
--- a/keydb.conf
+++ b/keydb.conf
@@ -2070,3 +2070,12 @@ server-threads 2
 #
 # By default KeyDB sets this to 2.
 replica-weighting-factor 2
+
+# Should KeyDB make active attempts at balancing clients across threads?  This can impact
+# performance accepting new clients.  By default this is enabled.  If disabled there is still
+# a best effort from the kernel to distribute across threads with SO_REUSEPORT but it will not
+# be as fair.
+#
+# By default this is enabled
+#
+active-client-balancing yes
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/config.cpp b/src/config.cpp
index efd7928bd..eaa1e2dd9 100644
--- a/src/config.cpp
+++ b/src/config.cpp
@@ -2779,6 +2779,7 @@ standardConfig configs[] = {
     createBoolConfig("replica-announced", NULL, MODIFIABLE_CONFIG, g_pserver->replica_announced, 1, NULL, NULL),
     createBoolConfig("enable-async-commands", NULL, MODIFIABLE_CONFIG, g_pserver->enable_async_commands, 1, NULL, NULL),
     createBoolConfig("multithread-load-enabled", NULL, MODIFIABLE_CONFIG, g_pserver->multithread_load_enabled, 0, NULL, NULL),
+    createBoolConfig("active-client-balancing", NULL, MODIFIABLE_CONFIG, g_pserver->active_client_balancing, 1, NULL, NULL),
 
     /* String Configs */
     createStringConfig("aclfile", NULL, IMMUTABLE_CONFIG, ALLOW_EMPTY_STRING, g_pserver->acl_filename, "", NULL, NULL),
diff --git a/src/networking.cpp b/src/networking.cpp
index a7920b692..4346c7479 100644
--- a/src/networking.cpp
+++ b/src/networking.cpp
@@ -1319,7 +1319,7 @@ void acceptOnThread(connection *conn, int flags, char *cip)
     int ielCur = ielFromEventLoop(serverTL->el);
     bool fBootLoad = (g_pserver->loading == LOADING_BOOT);
 
-    int ielTarget = 0;
+    int ielTarget = ielCur;
     if (fBootLoad)
     {
         ielTarget = IDX_EVENT_LOOP_MAIN;    // During load only the main thread is active
@@ -1330,7 +1330,7 @@ void acceptOnThread(connection *conn, int flags, char *cip)
         while (cserver.cthreads > 1 && ielTarget == IDX_EVENT_LOOP_MAIN)
             ielTarget = rand() % cserver.cthreads;
     }
-    else
+    else if (g_pserver->active_client_balancing)
     {
         // Cluster connections are more transient, so its not worth the cost to balance
         //  we can trust that SO_REUSEPORT is doing its job of distributing connections
diff --git a/src/server.h b/src/server.h
index 974661ad8..305177651 100644
--- a/src/server.h
+++ b/src/server.h
@@ -2635,6 +2635,7 @@ struct redisServer {
 
     int enable_async_commands;
     int multithread_load_enabled = 0;
+    int active_client_balancing = 1;
 
     long long repl_batch_offStart = -1;
     long long repl_batch_idxStart = -1;