diff --git a/bench/fastled-examples/README.md b/bench/fastled-examples/README.md
index 43de278aa..250f933c4 100644
--- a/bench/fastled-examples/README.md
+++ b/bench/fastled-examples/README.md
@@ -60,10 +60,13 @@ threshold: 50.00 ms`) and recorded under the top-level `max_warm_ms`
 key in the JSON report, with the breach list under `breaches`.
 
 The `fastled-examples` job in `.github/workflows/bench-205.yml` passes
-`--max-warm-ms 50`. The 50 ms value gives roughly 25× headroom over
-the current ~1-2 ms warm timings on developer hardware (and ~10 ms on
-CI runners), comfortably absorbing runner noise without false
-positives. The job runs on every PR whose changes touch
+`--max-warm-ms 50`. Headroom over that gate is **host- and file-cache
+dependent, not 25×**: measured warm timings are ~11 ms on the 2026-05
+Windows capture and 31-41 ms on a 16-core NixOS host (2026-11-01
+re-capture, see below), i.e. 1.2-4.5× headroom. Treat a warm number near
+50 ms as a possible host-load or resolver regression, not as noise, and
+compare against a same-day run instead of the archived tables. The job
+runs on every PR whose changes touch
 `crates/fbuild-library-select/**`, `crates/fbuild-header-scan/**`,
 `bench/fastled-examples/**`, the shared `MiniFramework` fixture, or
 the workflow itself — gating those PRs on the resolver staying within
@@ -83,11 +86,30 @@ release build:
 | BlurBenchmark |    827.46 |     10.48 |   79.0x |
 | Chromancer    |    844.13 |     10.89 |   77.5x |
 
-The warm path comfortably clears AC#5 (≤ +50 ms over current fbuild) at
-~11 ms per example. The ~75x speedup reflects the cost asymmetry between
+The warm path clears AC#5 (≤ 50 ms) at ~11 ms per example on that
+Windows workstation. The ~75x speedup reflects the cost asymmetry between
 walking the FastLED `src/` tree (~1000 files) and a `FileKvStore`
 get + bincode decode of a serialized `Selection`.
 
+Captured 2026-11-01 on NixOS / 16-core x86_64, `soldr cargo run
+--release`, same `EXAMPLES` set, two consecutive runs at host load
+2-15 (16 cores). The speedup column collapses because the cold path is
+much faster here (~10x faster than the 2026-05 Windows numbers):
+
+| example       | cold (ms) | warm (ms) | speedup |
+|---------------|----------:|----------:|--------:|
+| Blink         |     80-94 |     32-39 |   2.1x  |
+| Pacifica      |     76-79 |     33-34 |   2.2x  |
+| Animartrix    |     91-91 |     36-41 |   2.2x  |
+| Audio         |     78-79 |     32-33 |   2.4x  |
+| BlurBenchmark |     75-77 |     31-33 |   2.3x  |
+| Chromancer    |     80-82 |     33-34 |   2.4x  |
+
+Every row reported `hit=yes` and both runs exited 0 under
+`--max-warm-ms 50`. Warm spread across the two runs (31.2-40.9 ms) tracks
+host load, so a bare warm number is only meaningful beside the load it
+was taken at.
+
 ## Curated example set
 
 The harness intentionally runs a small representative subset rather than
diff --git a/bench/fastled-examples/src/main.rs b/bench/fastled-examples/src/main.rs
index 7d38835b9..33f296468 100644
--- a/bench/fastled-examples/src/main.rs
+++ b/bench/fastled-examples/src/main.rs
@@ -41,8 +41,9 @@
 //!
 //! `--max-warm-ms <f64>` enforces AC#5: each example whose warm timing
 //! exceeds the threshold causes the binary to exit 1 after the table is
-//! printed. Wired in CI at 50 ms (`~25x` headroom over current ~1-2 ms
-//! warm numbers — absorbs runner noise without false positives).
+//! printed. Wired in CI at 50 ms; measured warm timings are ~11 ms on the
+//! 2026-05 Windows capture and 31-41 ms on a 16-core Linux host (2026-11-01),
+//! so the headroom is 1.2-4.5x, not 25x — see `README.md`.
 //!
 //! Refs: #205 Phase 7 (AC#5), #218.