diff --git a/vm/mx.vm/mx_vm_benchmark.py b/vm/mx.vm/mx_vm_benchmark.py
index 651ef0b4b9c8..f77f2ff47c9d 100644
--- a/vm/mx.vm/mx_vm_benchmark.py
+++ b/vm/mx.vm/mx_vm_benchmark.py
@@ -1187,7 +1187,7 @@ def runAndReturnStdOut(self, benchmarks, bmSuiteArgs):
         if isinstance(vm, mx_benchmark.GuestVm):
             host_vm = vm.host_vm()
             assert host_vm
-        name = 'graalvm-ee' if mx_sdk_vm_impl.has_component('svmee') else 'graalvm-ce'
+        name = 'graalvm-ee' if mx_sdk_vm_impl.has_component('svmee', stage1=True) else 'graalvm-ce'
         dims = {
             # the vm and host-vm fields are hardcoded to one of the accepted names of the field
             "vm": name,