diff --git a/pkgs/servers/nosql/arangodb/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/nosql/arangodb/default.nix
index c4498087da36..684f1b7a52ce 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/nosql/arangodb/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/nosql/arangodb/default.nix
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 , lzo
 , which
 , targetArchitecture ? null
+, asmOptimizations ? gcc10Stdenv.targetPlatform.isx86
 }:
 
 let
@@ -65,6 +66,9 @@ gcc10Stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
     # avoid reading /proc/cpuinfo for feature detection
     "-DTARGET_ARCHITECTURE=${targetArch}"
+  ] ++ lib.optionals asmOptimizations [
+    "-DASM_OPTIMIZATIONS=ON"
+    "-DHAVE_SSE42=${if gcc10Stdenv.targetPlatform.sse4_2Support then "ON" else "OFF"}"
   ];
 
   meta = with lib; {