diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/ll/llama-cpp/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/ll/llama-cpp/package.nix
index ce1ae9e3c291..e6b4bde91d43 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/ll/llama-cpp/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/ll/llama-cpp/package.nix
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@
   rocmPackages ? { },
   rocmGpuTargets ? rocmPackages.clr.localGpuTargets or rocmPackages.clr.gpuTargets,
 
+  cpuArchDynamicDispatch ? true,
+
   openclSupport ? false,
   clblast,
 
@@ -141,8 +143,7 @@ effectiveStdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
   '';
 
   cmakeFlags = [
-    # -march=native is non-deterministic; override with platform-specific flags if needed
-    (cmakeBool "GGML_NATIVE" false)
+    (cmakeBool "GGML_NATIVE" false) # -march=native would make builds non-deterministic
     (cmakeBool "LLAMA_BUILD_EXAMPLES" false)
     (cmakeBool "LLAMA_BUILD_SERVER" true)
     (cmakeBool "LLAMA_BUILD_TESTS" (finalAttrs.finalPackage.doCheck or false))
@@ -157,6 +158,18 @@ effectiveStdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     (cmakeBool "GGML_VULKAN" vulkanSupport)
     (cmakeFeature "LLAMA_BUILD_NUMBER" finalAttrs.version)
   ]
+  ++ optionals cpuArchDynamicDispatch [
+    # Build all CPU backend variants for runtime dynamic dispatch.
+    # This avoids illegal instructions on older CPUs and gives optimal performance
+    # on newer ones without needing separate builds.
+    # Enabling AVX2 can make CPU inference 13x faster compared to NixOS's x86_64 defaults.
+    # Note it is not a bug that the CPU variant .so files are placed in `bin/`
+    # (as opposed to `lib/`) alongside the executables by upstream's `CMakeLists.txt` design:
+    # * https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/blob/b46812de78f8fbcb6cf0154947e8633ebc78d9ac/ggml/src/CMakeLists.txt#L249-L252
+    # * https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/blob/b46812de78f8fbcb6cf0154947e8633ebc78d9ac/ggml/src/ggml-backend-reg.cpp#L480-L486
+    (cmakeBool "GGML_CPU_ALL_VARIANTS" true)
+    (cmakeBool "GGML_BACKEND_DL" true)
+  ]
   ++ optionals cudaSupport [
     (cmakeFeature "CMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES" cudaPackages.flags.cmakeCudaArchitecturesString)
   ]