diff --git a/raft-ann-bench/cpu/Dockerfile b/raft-ann-bench/cpu/Dockerfile
index 1910ede7..7aff0d4c 100644
--- a/raft-ann-bench/cpu/Dockerfile
+++ b/raft-ann-bench/cpu/Dockerfile
@@ -23,10 +23,11 @@ EOF
 # we need perl temporarily for the remaining benchmark perl scripts
 RUN apt-get install perl -y
 
-# Install python before updating environment, otherwise Python 3 image
-# runs into a solver conflict with truststore 0.8.0. This avoids the environment installing
-# packages incompatible with python version needed before python itself is pinned to the correct version.
+# update everything before other environment changes, to ensure mixing
+# an older conda with newer packages still works well
+# ref: https://github.com/rapidsai/ci-imgs/issues/185
 RUN <<EOF
+mamba update --all -y -n base
 mamba install -y -n base "python=${PYTHON_VER}"
 mamba update --all -y -n base
 mamba install -y -n base \
diff --git a/raft-ann-bench/gpu/Dockerfile b/raft-ann-bench/gpu/Dockerfile
index 2f5b8780..28f4ac91 100644
--- a/raft-ann-bench/gpu/Dockerfile
+++ b/raft-ann-bench/gpu/Dockerfile
@@ -26,8 +26,6 @@ EOF
 # we need perl temporarily for the remaining benchmark perl scripts
 RUN apt-get install perl -y
 
-# temporarily downgrade conda from 23.9.0 due to https://github.com/mamba-org/mamba/issues/2882
-# after the mamba update step
 RUN <<EOF
 mamba update --all -y -n base
 mamba install -y -n base \