diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/Kconfig b/drivers/gpu/drm/Kconfig
index a7c54c843291..cd4246b480d4 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/Kconfig
@@ -168,6 +168,17 @@ config DRM_I915_KMS
 	  the driver to bind to PCI devices, which precludes loading things
 	  like intelfb.
 
+config DRM_I915_PRELIMINARY_HW_SUPPORT
+	bool "Enable preliminary support for prerelease Intel hardware by default"
+	depends on DRM_I915
+	help
+	  Choose this option if you have prerelease Intel hardware and want the
+	  i915 driver to support it by default.  You can enable such support at
+	  runtime with the module option i915.preliminary_hw_support=1; this
+	  option changes the default for that module option.
+
+	  If in doubt, say "N".
+
 config DRM_MGA
 	tristate "Matrox g200/g400"
 	depends on DRM && PCI
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_drv.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_drv.c
index 01d63a0435fb..fd9fb2c25691 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_drv.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_drv.c
@@ -122,10 +122,10 @@ int i915_enable_psr __read_mostly = 0;
 module_param_named(enable_psr, i915_enable_psr, int, 0600);
 MODULE_PARM_DESC(enable_psr, "Enable PSR (default: false)");
 
-unsigned int i915_preliminary_hw_support __read_mostly = 0;
+unsigned int i915_preliminary_hw_support __read_mostly = IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_DRM_I915_PRELIMINARY_HW_SUPPORT);
 module_param_named(preliminary_hw_support, i915_preliminary_hw_support, int, 0600);
 MODULE_PARM_DESC(preliminary_hw_support,
-		"Enable preliminary hardware support. (default: false)");
+		"Enable preliminary hardware support.");
 
 int i915_disable_power_well __read_mostly = 1;
 module_param_named(disable_power_well, i915_disable_power_well, int, 0600);