diff --git a/fs/f2fs/node.h b/fs/f2fs/node.h
index d4d1f636fe1c..bd119c0edf93 100644
--- a/fs/f2fs/node.h
+++ b/fs/f2fs/node.h
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@
 /* control the memory footprint threshold (10MB per 1GB ram) */
 #define DEF_RAM_THRESHOLD	10
 
+/* control dirty nats ratio threshold (default: 10% over max nid count) */
+#define DEF_DIRTY_NAT_RATIO_THRESHOLD		10
+
 /* vector size for gang look-up from nat cache that consists of radix tree */
 #define NATVEC_SIZE	64
 #define SETVEC_SIZE	32
@@ -117,6 +120,12 @@ static inline void raw_nat_from_node_info(struct f2fs_nat_entry *raw_ne,
 	raw_ne->version = ni->version;
 }
 
+static inline bool excess_dirty_nats(struct f2fs_sb_info *sbi)
+{
+	return NM_I(sbi)->dirty_nat_cnt >= NM_I(sbi)->max_nid *
+					DEF_DIRTY_NAT_RATIO_THRESHOLD / 100;
+}
+
 enum mem_type {
 	FREE_NIDS,	/* indicates the free nid list */
 	NAT_ENTRIES,	/* indicates the cached nat entry */
diff --git a/fs/f2fs/segment.c b/fs/f2fs/segment.c
index e16235bbdd7d..53baf4a420dc 100644
--- a/fs/f2fs/segment.c
+++ b/fs/f2fs/segment.c
@@ -291,8 +291,9 @@ void f2fs_balance_fs_bg(struct f2fs_sb_info *sbi)
 
 	/* checkpoint is the only way to shrink partial cached entries */
 	if (!available_free_memory(sbi, NAT_ENTRIES) ||
-			excess_prefree_segs(sbi) ||
 			!available_free_memory(sbi, INO_ENTRIES) ||
+			excess_prefree_segs(sbi) ||
+			excess_dirty_nats(sbi) ||
 			(is_idle(sbi) && f2fs_time_over(sbi, CP_TIME))) {
 		if (test_opt(sbi, DATA_FLUSH))
 			sync_dirty_inodes(sbi, FILE_INODE);