diff --git a/share/man/man4/nvme.4 b/share/man/man4/nvme.4
index c82bef0a626..e0ea6c2dbe8 100644
--- a/share/man/man4/nvme.4
+++ b/share/man/man4/nvme.4
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ Buffer for capable devices, set the following tunable:
 hw.nvme.hmb_max
 .Ed
 .Pp
-The default value is 1% of physical memory size per device.
+The default value is 5% of physical memory size per device.
 .Pp
 The
 .Xr nvd 4
diff --git a/sys/dev/nvme/nvme_ctrlr.c b/sys/dev/nvme/nvme_ctrlr.c
index 7efb9ff38e8..155c65d8fdb 100644
--- a/sys/dev/nvme/nvme_ctrlr.c
+++ b/sys/dev/nvme/nvme_ctrlr.c
@@ -886,7 +886,7 @@ nvme_ctrlr_hmb_alloc(struct nvme_controller *ctrlr)
 	TUNABLE_UINT64_FETCH("hw.nvme.hmb_max", &max);
 
 	min = (long long unsigned)ctrlr->cdata.hmmin * 4096;
-	if (max < min)
+	if (max == 0 || max < min)
 		return;
 	pref = MIN((long long unsigned)ctrlr->cdata.hmpre * 4096, max);
 	minc = MAX(ctrlr->cdata.hmminds * 4096, PAGE_SIZE);