diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index 347cabe533..3a998e2efa 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -699,9 +699,13 @@ mymain(void)
                                 __VA_ARGS__, ARG_END) < 0) \
             return EXIT_FAILURE; \
         testInfoSetPaths(&info, _suffix); \
+        if (info.arch != VIR_ARCH_NONE && info.arch != VIR_ARCH_X86_64) \
+            qemuTestSetHostArch(driver.caps, info.arch); \
         if (virTestRun("QEMU XML-2-ARGV " _name _suffix, \
                        testCompareXMLToArgv, &info) < 0) \
             ret = -1; \
+        if (info.arch != VIR_ARCH_NONE && info.arch != VIR_ARCH_X86_64) \
+            qemuTestSetHostArch(driver.caps, VIR_ARCH_NONE); \
         testQemuInfoClear(&info); \
     } while (0)
 
diff --git a/tests/testutilsqemu.c b/tests/testutilsqemu.c
index 5a7011478b..7b9e427463 100644
--- a/tests/testutilsqemu.c
+++ b/tests/testutilsqemu.c
@@ -1058,16 +1058,16 @@ testQemuInfoSetArgs(struct testQemuInfo *info,
     if (!qemuCaps && capsarch && capsver) {
         bool stripmachinealiases = false;
 
+        info->arch = virArchFromString(capsarch);
+
         if (STREQ(capsver, "latest")) {
             capsfile = g_strdup(virHashLookup(capslatest, capsarch));
             stripmachinealiases = true;
         } else capsfile = g_strdup_printf("%s/caps_%s.%s.xml",
                                           TEST_QEMU_CAPS_PATH, capsver, capsarch);
 
-        if (!(qemuCaps = qemuTestParseCapabilitiesArch(virArchFromString(capsarch),
-                                                       capsfile))) {
+        if (!(qemuCaps = qemuTestParseCapabilitiesArch(info->arch, capsfile)))
             goto cleanup;
-        }
 
         if (stripmachinealiases)
             virQEMUCapsStripMachineAliases(qemuCaps);
diff --git a/tests/testutilsqemu.h b/tests/testutilsqemu.h
index 714a95bb7a..da3bf3ab7a 100644
--- a/tests/testutilsqemu.h
+++ b/tests/testutilsqemu.h
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ struct testQemuInfo {
     int migrateFd;
     unsigned int flags;
     unsigned int parseFlags;
+    virArch arch;
 };
 
 virCapsPtr testQemuCapsInit(void);