diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/CartesianRDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/CartesianRDD.scala
index 57108dcedcf0..88607d508de2 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/CartesianRDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/CartesianRDD.scala
@@ -72,8 +72,10 @@ class CartesianRDD[T: ClassTag, U: ClassTag](
 
   override def compute(split: Partition, context: TaskContext): Iterator[(T, U)] = {
     val currSplit = split.asInstanceOf[CartesianPartition]
-    for (x <- rdd1.iterator(currSplit.s1, context);
-         y <- rdd2.iterator(currSplit.s2, context)) yield (x, y)
+    val groupSize = 500;
+    for (x <- rdd1.iterator(currSplit.s1, context).grouped(groupSize);
+         y <- rdd2.iterator(currSplit.s2, context).grouped(groupSize);
+         i <- x; j <- y) yield (i, j)
   }
 
   override def getDependencies: Seq[Dependency[_]] = List(