diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index ea7028aca4..92dd8d3165 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ dev
  * windows scripts for SSTableImport/Export (CASSANDRA-1051)
  * windows script for nodetool (CASSANDRA-1113)
  * make repair of RF==1 a no-op (CASSANDRA-1090)
+ * improve default JVM GC options (CASSANDRA-1014)
 
 
 0.6.1
diff --git a/bin/cassandra.in.sh b/bin/cassandra.in.sh
index 322283f5ea..9d66ab016c 100644
--- a/bin/cassandra.in.sh
+++ b/bin/cassandra.in.sh
@@ -39,16 +39,14 @@ done
 # Arguments to pass to the JVM
 JVM_OPTS=" \
         -ea \
-        -Xms128M \
+        -Xms256M \
         -Xmx1G \
-        -XX:TargetSurvivorRatio=90 \
-        -XX:+AggressiveOpts \
         -XX:+UseParNewGC \
         -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC \
         -XX:+CMSParallelRemarkEnabled \
+        -XX:SurvivorRatio=8 \
+        -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=1 \
         -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError \
-        -XX:SurvivorRatio=128 \
-        -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=0 \
         -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=8080 \
         -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false \
         -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false"