diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 10e8fb0244b..f716a9e8179 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1785,7 +1785,6 @@ if with_clc
   llvm_optional_modules += ['all-targets', 'windowsdriver', 'frontendhlsl', 'frontenddriver']
 endif
 draw_with_llvm = get_option('draw-use-llvm')
-llvm_with_orcjit = get_option('llvm-orcjit')
 if draw_with_llvm
   llvm_modules += 'native'
   # lto is needded with LLVM>=15, but we don't know what LLVM verrsion we are using yet
@@ -1793,6 +1792,12 @@ if draw_with_llvm
 endif
 amd_with_llvm = get_option('amd-use-llvm')
 
+# MCJIT is deprecated in LLVM and will not accept new architecture ports,
+# so any architecture not in the exhaustive list will have to rely on LLVM
+# ORCJIT for llvmpipe functionality.
+llvm_has_mcjit = host_machine.cpu_family() in ['aarch64', 'arm', 'ppc', 'ppc64', 's390x', 'x86', 'x86_64']
+llvm_with_orcjit = get_option('llvm-orcjit') or not llvm_has_mcjit
+
 if with_amd_vk or with_gallium_radeonsi or with_clc or llvm_with_orcjit
   _llvm_version = '>= 15.0.0'
 elif with_gallium_clover
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index f00a2787a68..545f6d20d3a 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -444,7 +444,10 @@ option (
   'llvm-orcjit',
   type : 'boolean',
   value : false,
-  description: 'Build llvmpipe with LLVM ORCJIT support.'
+  description: 'Build llvmpipe with LLVM ORCJIT support. Has no effect when ' +
+               'building for architectures without LLVM MCJIT support -- ' +
+               'ORCJIT is the only choice on such architectures and will ' +
+               'always be enabled.'
 )
 
 option(