diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index f7560de622..85cdbbff15 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -3933,10 +3933,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
                 configure_rtc(opts);
                 break;
             case QEMU_OPTION_tb_size:
-                if (!tcg_enabled()) {
-                    error_report("TCG is disabled");
-                    exit(1);
-                }
+#ifndef CONFIG_TCG
+                error_report("TCG is disabled");
+                exit(1);
+#endif
                 if (qemu_strtoul(optarg, NULL, 0, &tcg_tb_size) < 0) {
                     error_report("Invalid argument to -tb-size");
                     exit(1);