diff --git a/src/emu/video/rgbutil.c b/src/emu/video/rgbutil.c
index b44c4e3e1b8..23fcc60e014 100644
--- a/src/emu/video/rgbutil.c
+++ b/src/emu/video/rgbutil.c
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
     SSE TABLES
 ***************************************************************************/
 
-#if !defined(MAME_DEBUG) && (defined(__SSE2__) || defined(_MSC_VER)) && defined(PTR64)
+#if (!defined(MAME_DEBUG) || defined(__OPTIMIZE__)) && (defined(__SSE2__) || defined(_MSC_VER)) && defined(PTR64)
 const struct _rgbsse_statics rgbsse_statics =
 {
 	{ 0 },
diff --git a/src/emu/video/rgbutil.h b/src/emu/video/rgbutil.h
index ab258420b72..88db0076540 100644
--- a/src/emu/video/rgbutil.h
+++ b/src/emu/video/rgbutil.h
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 #define __RGBUTIL__
 
 /* use SSE on 64-bit implementations, where it can be assumed */
-#if !defined(MAME_DEBUG) && (defined(__SSE2__) || defined(_MSC_VER)) && defined(PTR64)
+#if (!defined(MAME_DEBUG) || defined(__OPTIMIZE__)) && (defined(__SSE2__) || defined(_MSC_VER)) && defined(PTR64)
 #include "rgbsse.h"
 #elif defined(__ALTIVEC__)
 #include "rgbvmx.h"