diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_dma.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_dma.c
index 553dd4bc3075..afa8a12cd009 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_dma.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_dma.c
@@ -717,7 +717,7 @@ static int i915_getparam(struct drm_device *dev, void *data,
 		value = dev->pci_device;
 		break;
 	case I915_PARAM_HAS_GEM:
-		value = 1;
+		value = dev_priv->has_gem;
 		break;
 	default:
 		DRM_ERROR("Unknown parameter %d\n", param->param);
@@ -830,6 +830,14 @@ int i915_driver_load(struct drm_device *dev, unsigned long flags)
 
 	dev_priv->regs = ioremap(base, size);
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G
+	/* don't enable GEM on PAE - needs agp + set_memory_* interface fixes */
+	dev_priv->has_gem = 0;
+#else
+	/* enable GEM by default */
+	dev_priv->has_gem = 1;
+#endif
+
 	i915_gem_load(dev);
 
 	/* Init HWS */
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_drv.h b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_drv.h
index adc972cc6bfc..b3cc4731aa7c 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_drv.h
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_drv.h
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ struct intel_opregion {
 typedef struct drm_i915_private {
 	struct drm_device *dev;
 
+	int has_gem;
+
 	void __iomem *regs;
 	drm_local_map_t *sarea;