diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/FsDirectoryFactory.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/FsDirectoryFactory.java
index a3ab206191f9e..d4ec647b992b5 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/FsDirectoryFactory.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/FsDirectoryFactory.java
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ public class FsDirectoryFactory implements IndexStorePlugin.DirectoryFactory {
 
     private static final Logger Log = LogManager.getLogger(FsDirectoryFactory.class);
     private static final FeatureFlag MADV_RANDOM_FEATURE_FLAG = new FeatureFlag("madv_random");
+    private static final FeatureFlag TMP_FDT_NO_MMAP_FEATURE_FLAG = new FeatureFlag("tmp_fdt_no_mmap");
 
     public static final Setting<LockFactory> INDEX_LOCK_FACTOR_SETTING = new Setting<>("index.store.fs.fs_lock", "native", (s) -> {
         return switch (s) {
@@ -222,7 +223,7 @@ static boolean useDelegate(String name, IOContext ioContext) {
             }
 
             final LuceneFilesExtensions extension = LuceneFilesExtensions.fromExtension(getExtension(name));
-            if (extension == null || extension.shouldMmap() == false) {
+            if (extension == null || extension.shouldMmap() == false || avoidDelegateForFdtTempFiles(name, extension)) {
                 // Other files are either less performance-sensitive (e.g. stored field index, norms metadata)
                 // or are large and have a random access pattern and mmap leads to page cache trashing
                 // (e.g. stored fields and term vectors).
@@ -231,6 +232,39 @@ static boolean useDelegate(String name, IOContext ioContext) {
             return true;
         }
 
+        /**
+         * Force not using mmap if file is tmp fdt file.
+         * The tmp fdt file only gets created when flushing stored
+         * fields to disk and index sorting is active.
+         * <p>
+         * In Lucene, the <code>SortingStoredFieldsConsumer</code> first
+         * flushes stored fields to disk in tmp files in unsorted order and
+         * uncompressed format. Then the tmp file gets a full integrity check,
+         * then the stored values are read from the tmp in the order of
+         * the index sorting in the segment, the order in which this happens
+         * from the perspective of tmp fdt file is random. After that,
+         * the tmp files are removed.
+         * <p>
+         * If the machine Elasticsearch runs on has sufficient memory the i/o pattern
+         * that <code>SortingStoredFieldsConsumer</code> actually benefits from using mmap.
+         * However, in cases when memory scarce, this pattern can cause page faults often.
+         * Doing more harm than not using mmap.
+         * <p>
+         * As part of flushing stored disk when indexing sorting is active,
+         * three tmp files are created, fdm (metadata), fdx (index) and
+         * fdt (contains stored field data). The first two files are small and
+         * mmap-ing that should still be ok even is memory is scarce.
+         * The fdt file is large and tends to cause more page faults when memory is scarce.
+         *
+         * @param name      The name of the file in Lucene index
+         * @param extension The extension of the in Lucene index
+         * @return whether to avoid using delegate if the file is a tmp fdt file.
+         */
+        static boolean avoidDelegateForFdtTempFiles(String name, LuceneFilesExtensions extension) {
+            // NOTE, for now gated behind feature flag to observe impact of this change in benchmarks only:
+            return TMP_FDT_NO_MMAP_FEATURE_FLAG.isEnabled() && extension == LuceneFilesExtensions.TMP && name.contains("fdt");
+        }
+
         MMapDirectory getDelegate() {
             return delegate;
         }
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/FsDirectoryFactoryTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/FsDirectoryFactoryTests.java
index 167e151c519ee..bbb78053e7518 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/FsDirectoryFactoryTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/FsDirectoryFactoryTests.java
@@ -69,7 +69,10 @@ public void testPreload() throws IOException {
             assertTrue(FsDirectoryFactory.HybridDirectory.useDelegate("foo.kdi", newIOContext(random())));
             assertFalse(FsDirectoryFactory.HybridDirectory.useDelegate("foo.kdi", Store.READONCE_CHECKSUM));
             assertTrue(FsDirectoryFactory.HybridDirectory.useDelegate("foo.tmp", newIOContext(random())));
-            assertTrue(FsDirectoryFactory.HybridDirectory.useDelegate("foo.fdt__0.tmp", newIOContext(random())));
+            assertFalse(FsDirectoryFactory.HybridDirectory.useDelegate("foo.fdt__0.tmp", newIOContext(random())));
+            assertFalse(FsDirectoryFactory.HybridDirectory.useDelegate("_0.fdt__1.tmp", newIOContext(random())));
+            assertTrue(FsDirectoryFactory.HybridDirectory.useDelegate("_0.fdm__0.tmp", newIOContext(random())));
+            assertTrue(FsDirectoryFactory.HybridDirectory.useDelegate("_0.fdx__4.tmp", newIOContext(random())));
             MMapDirectory delegate = hybridDirectory.getDelegate();
             assertThat(delegate, Matchers.instanceOf(MMapDirectory.class));
             var func = fsDirectoryFactory.preLoadFuncMap.get(delegate);