diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index c02c96840..cc27b2b85 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ option(CITRA_USE_BUNDLED_SDL2 "Download bundled SDL2 binaries" OFF)
 option(ENABLE_QT "Enable the Qt frontend" ON)
 option(CITRA_USE_BUNDLED_QT "Download bundled Qt binaries" OFF)
 
+# uses O3 instead of O2
+option(ENABLE_HIGH_OP "Enable highest optimizations possible" OFF)
+
 if(NOT EXISTS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/.git/hooks/pre-commit)
     message(STATUS "Copying pre-commit hook")
     file(COPY hooks/pre-commit
@@ -107,10 +110,14 @@ else()
     set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG   "/Od /MDd" CACHE STRING "" FORCE)
     set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG}" CACHE STRING "" FORCE)
 
+    set(OP_LEVEL "/O2")
+    if (ENABLE_HIGH_OP)
+      set(OP_LEVEL "/O3")
+
     # /O2 - Optimization level 2
     # /GS- - No stack buffer overflow checks
     # /MD - Multi-threaded runtime DLL
-    set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASE   "/O2 /GS- /MD" CACHE STRING "" FORCE)
+    set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASE   "${OP_LEVEL} /GS- /MD" CACHE STRING "" FORCE)
     set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASE}" CACHE STRING "" FORCE)
 
     set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_DEBUG   "/DEBUG" CACHE STRING "" FORCE)