diff --git a/lib/decompress/zstd_decompress_block.c b/lib/decompress/zstd_decompress_block.c
index d4d23357..9d60fdf3 100644
--- a/lib/decompress/zstd_decompress_block.c
+++ b/lib/decompress/zstd_decompress_block.c
@@ -974,6 +974,47 @@ ZSTD_decompressSequences_body( ZSTD_DCtx* dctx,
                 BIT_DStream_endOfBuffer < BIT_DStream_completed &&
                 BIT_DStream_completed < BIT_DStream_overflow);
 
+#if defined(__GNUC__) && defined(__x86_64__)
+        /* Align the decompression loop to 32 + 16 bytes.
+         *
+         * zstd compiled with gcc-9 on an Intel i9-9900k shows 10% decompression
+         * speed swings based on the alignment of the decompression loop. This
+         * performance swing is caused by parts of the decompression loop falling
+         * out of the DSB. The entire decompression loop should fit in the DSB,
+         * when it can't we get much worse performance. You can measure if you've
+         * hit the good case or the bad case with this perf command for some
+         * compressed file test.zst:
+         *
+         *   perf stat -e cycles -e instructions -e idq.all_dsb_cycles_any_uops \
+         *             -e idq.all_mite_cycles_any_uops -- ./zstd -tq test.zst
+         *
+         * If you see most cycles served out of the MITE you've hit the bad case.
+         * If you see most cycles served out of the DSB you've hit the good case.
+         * If it is pretty even then you may be in an okay case.
+         *
+         * I've been able to reproduce this issue on the following CPUs:
+         *   - Kabylake: Macbook Pro (15-inch, 2019) 2.4 GHz Intel Core i9
+         *               Use Instruments->Counters to get DSB/MITE cycles.
+         *               I never got performance swings, but I was able to
+         *               go from the good case of mostly DSB to half of the
+         *               cycles served from MITE.
+         *   - Coffeelake: Intel i9-9900k
+         *
+         * I haven't been able to reproduce the instability or DSB misses on any
+         * of the following CPUS:
+         *   - Haswell
+         *   - Broadwell: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v4 @ 2.40GH
+         *   - Skylake
+         *
+         * If you are seeing performance stability this script can help test.
+         * It tests on 4 commits in zstd where I saw performance change.
+         *
+         *   https://gist.github.com/terrelln/9889fc06a423fd5ca6e99351564473f4
+         */
+        __asm__(".p2align 5");
+        __asm__("nop");
+        __asm__(".p2align 4");
+#endif
         for ( ; ; ) {
             seq_t const sequence = ZSTD_decodeSequence(&seqState, isLongOffset, ZSTD_p_noPrefetch);
             size_t const oneSeqSize = ZSTD_execSequence(op, oend, sequence, &litPtr, litEnd, prefixStart, vBase, dictEnd);