diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gromacs/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gromacs/package.py
index 6476f32dcd638b6e307d5029cc69d617fbe70fe1..6709505537435211abaa4701b11bb6dcbe50a89e 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gromacs/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gromacs/package.py
@@ -87,6 +87,8 @@ def cmake_args(self):
             options.append('-DGMX_GPU:BOOL=ON')
             options.append('-DCUDA_TOOLKIT_ROOT_DIR:STRING=' +
                            self.spec['cuda'].prefix)
+        else:
+            options.append('-DGMX_GPU:BOOL=OFF')
 
         simd_value = self.spec.variants['simd'].value
         if simd_value == 'auto':