diff --git a/assignment-client/src/audio/AudioMixerSlavePool.cpp b/assignment-client/src/audio/AudioMixerSlavePool.cpp
index 6f0adaf661..7668553662 100644
--- a/assignment-client/src/audio/AudioMixerSlavePool.cpp
+++ b/assignment-client/src/audio/AudioMixerSlavePool.cpp
@@ -129,7 +129,8 @@ void AudioMixerSlavePool::setNumThreads(int numThreads) {
         int maxThreads = QThread::idealThreadCount();
         if (maxThreads == -1) {
             // idealThreadCount returns -1 if cores cannot be detected
-            maxThreads = std::numeric_limits<int>::max();
+            static const int MAX_THREADS_IF_UNKNOWN = 4;
+            maxThreads = MAX_THREADS_IF_UNKNOWN;
         }
 
         int clampedThreads = std::min(std::max(1, numThreads), maxThreads);