diff --git a/run.sh b/run.sh
index 3be7042bed..85eb226d9a 100755
--- a/run.sh
+++ b/run.sh
@@ -116,6 +116,9 @@ fi
 # run as root (uid 0) within the container - with rootless podman this means
 # that the process will actually run with your own uid on the host machine,
 # rather than the uid being remapped to something else
+#
+# limits set to match operator defaults:
+# https://github.com/cryostatio/cryostat-operator/blob/2d386930dc96f0dcaf937987ec35874006c53b61/internal/controllers/common/resource_definitions/resource_definitions.go#L66
 podman run \
     --pod cryostat-pod \
     --name cryostat \
@@ -125,7 +128,8 @@ podman run \
     --label io.cryostat.jmxHost="localhost" \
     --label io.cryostat.jmxPort="0" \
     --label io.cryostat.jmxUrl="service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://localhost:0/jmxrmi" \
-    --memory 768M \
+    --cpus 0.1 \
+    --memory 384M \
     --mount type=bind,source="$(dirname "$0")/archive",destination=/opt/cryostat.d/recordings.d,relabel=shared \
     --mount type=bind,source="$(dirname "$0")/certs",destination=/certs,relabel=shared \
     --mount type=bind,source="$(dirname "$0")/clientlib",destination=/clientlib,relabel=shared \
diff --git a/smoketest.sh b/smoketest.sh
index 51e6275c7e..b765bd7887 100755
--- a/smoketest.sh
+++ b/smoketest.sh
@@ -253,10 +253,15 @@ runJfrDatasource() {
         tag="$(getPomProperty cryostat.itest.jfr-datasource.version)"
         DATASOURCE_IMAGE="${stream}:${tag}"
     fi
+    # limits set to match operator defaults:
+    # https://github.com/cryostatio/cryostat-operator/blob/2d386930dc96f0dcaf937987ec35874006c53b61/internal/controllers/common/resource_definitions/resource_definitions.go#L66
+    local RJMX_PORT=11223
     podman run \
         --name jfr-datasource \
         --pull "${PULL_IMAGES}" \
         --pod cryostat-pod \
+        --cpus 0.1 \
+        --memory 512m \
         --rm -d "${DATASOURCE_IMAGE}"
 }
 
@@ -267,6 +272,8 @@ runGrafana() {
         tag="$(getPomProperty cryostat.itest.grafana.version)"
         GRAFANA_IMAGE="${stream}:${tag}"
     fi
+    # limits set to match operator defaults:
+    # https://github.com/cryostatio/cryostat-operator/blob/2d386930dc96f0dcaf937987ec35874006c53b61/internal/controllers/common/resource_definitions/resource_definitions.go#L66
     local host; local port;
     host="$(getPomProperty cryostat.itest.webHost)"
     port="$(getPomProperty cryostat.itest.jfr-datasource.port)"
@@ -274,6 +281,8 @@ runGrafana() {
         --name grafana \
         --pull "${PULL_IMAGES}" \
         --pod cryostat-pod \
+        --cpus 0.1 \
+        --memory 256M \
         --env GF_INSTALL_PLUGINS=grafana-simple-json-datasource \
         --env GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED=true \
         --env JFR_DATASOURCE_URL="http://${host}:${port}" \
@@ -287,6 +296,8 @@ runReportGenerator() {
         tag="$(getPomProperty cryostat.itest.reports.version)"
         REPORTS_IMAGE="${stream}:${tag}"
     fi
+    # limits set to match operator defaults:
+    # https://github.com/cryostatio/cryostat-operator/blob/2d386930dc96f0dcaf937987ec35874006c53b61/internal/controllers/common/resource_definitions/resource_definitions.go#L66
     local RJMX_PORT=10000
     local port;
     port="$(getPomProperty cryostat.itest.reports.port)"
@@ -297,10 +308,10 @@ runReportGenerator() {
         --label io.cryostat.discovery="true" \
         --label io.cryostat.jmxHost="localhost" \
         --label io.cryostat.jmxPort="${RJMX_PORT}" \
-        --cpus 1 \
-        --memory 512M \
+        --cpus 0.128 \
+        --memory 256M \
         --restart on-failure \
-        --env JAVA_OPTS="-XX:ActiveProcessorCount=1 -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.autodiscovery=true -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=${RJMX_PORT} -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.rmi.port=${RJMX_PORT} -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false" \
+        --env JAVA_OPTS="-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.autodiscovery=true -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=${RJMX_PORT} -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.rmi.port=${RJMX_PORT} -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false" \
         --env QUARKUS_HTTP_PORT="${port}" \
         --rm -d "${REPORTS_IMAGE}"
 }