diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 084530f9a7..8e864abd5e 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -4699,7 +4699,9 @@ qemuBuildMemoryBackendStr(unsigned long long size,
     props = NULL;
 
     if (!hugepage) {
-        if ((nodemask || force) &&
+        bool nodeSpecified = virDomainNumatuneNodeSpecified(def->numatune, guestNode);
+
+        if ((userNodeset || nodeSpecified || force) &&
             !virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_RAM)) {
             virReportError(VIR_ERR_CONFIG_UNSUPPORTED, "%s",
                            _("this qemu doesn't support the "
@@ -4709,7 +4711,7 @@ qemuBuildMemoryBackendStr(unsigned long long size,
 
         /* report back that using the new backend is not necessary to achieve
          * the desired configuration */
-        if (!nodemask) {
+        if (!userNodeset && !nodeSpecified) {
             ret = 1;
             goto cleanup;
         }
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cputune-numatune.args b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cputune-numatune.args
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..481f72ffd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-cputune-numatune.args
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+LC_ALL=C PATH=/bin HOME=/home/test USER=test LOGNAME=test QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=none \
+/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 -S -M pc-q35-2.3 -m 128 \
+-smp 2,maxcpus=6,sockets=6,cores=1,threads=1 \
+-nographic -monitor unix:/tmp/test-monitor,server,nowait -no-acpi \
+-boot c -net none -serial none -parallel none
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-numatune-auto-prefer.args b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-numatune-auto-prefer.args
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0b1b0f5055
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-numatune-auto-prefer.args
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+LC_ALL=C PATH=/bin HOME=/home/test USER=test LOGNAME=test QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=none \
+/usr/bin/kvm -S -M pc -m 64 -smp 1 \
+-numa node,nodeid=0,cpus=0,mem=64 \
+-nographic -monitor unix:/tmp/test-monitor,server,nowait \
+-no-acpi -boot c -usb -net none -serial none -parallel none
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index 2de92ebfc3..39ed66b2e4 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -1260,6 +1260,10 @@ mymain(void)
     DO_TEST("cputune-zero-shares", QEMU_CAPS_NAME);
     DO_TEST_PARSE_ERROR("cputune-iothreadsched-toomuch", QEMU_CAPS_NAME);
     DO_TEST_PARSE_ERROR("cputune-vcpusched-overlap", QEMU_CAPS_NAME);
+    DO_TEST("cputune-numatune", QEMU_CAPS_SMP_TOPOLOGY,
+            QEMU_CAPS_KVM,
+            QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_RAM,
+            QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_FILE);
 
     DO_TEST("numatune-memory", NONE);
     DO_TEST_PARSE_ERROR("numatune-memory-invalid-nodeset", NONE);
@@ -1272,6 +1276,8 @@ mymain(void)
     DO_TEST_FAILURE("numatune-memnode-no-memory", NONE);
 
     DO_TEST("numatune-auto-nodeset-invalid", NONE);
+    DO_TEST("numatune-auto-prefer", QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_RAM,
+            QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_FILE);
     DO_TEST_FAILURE("numatune-static-nodeset-exceed-hostnode",
                     QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_RAM);
     DO_TEST_PARSE_ERROR("numatune-memnode-nocpu", NONE);