diff --git a/cogl/cogl-private.h b/cogl/cogl-private.h
index ce47eec19..6e2d301cc 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-private.h
+++ b/cogl/cogl-private.h
@@ -55,7 +55,8 @@ typedef enum
   COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_BUILTIN_POINT_SIZE_UNIFORM = 1L<<19,
   COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_QUERY_TEXTURE_PARAMETERS = 1L<<20,
   COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_ALPHA_TEXTURES = 1L<<21,
-  COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_TEXTURE_SWIZZLE = 1L<<22
+  COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_TEXTURE_SWIZZLE = 1L<<22,
+  COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_TEXTURE_MAX_LEVEL = 1L<<23
 } CoglPrivateFeatureFlags;
 
 /* Sometimes when evaluating pipelines, either during comparisons or
diff --git a/cogl/driver/gl/cogl-texture-gl.c b/cogl/driver/gl/cogl-texture-gl.c
index 3dd4607d0..a7dfc6835 100644
--- a/cogl/driver/gl/cogl-texture-gl.c
+++ b/cogl/driver/gl/cogl-texture-gl.c
@@ -99,7 +99,12 @@ void
 _cogl_texture_gl_maybe_update_max_level (CoglTexture *texture,
                                          int max_level)
 {
-  if (texture->max_level < max_level)
+  /* This isn't supported on GLES */
+#ifdef HAVE_COGL_GL
+  CoglContext *ctx = texture->context;
+
+  if ((ctx->private_feature_flags & COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_TEXTURE_MAX_LEVEL) &&
+      texture->max_level < max_level)
     {
       CoglContext *ctx = texture->context;
       GLuint gl_handle;
@@ -116,6 +121,7 @@ _cogl_texture_gl_maybe_update_max_level (CoglTexture *texture,
       GE( ctx, glTexParameteri (gl_target,
                                 GL_TEXTURE_MAX_LEVEL, texture->max_level));
     }
+#endif /* HAVE_COGL_GL */
 }
 
 void
diff --git a/cogl/driver/gl/gl/cogl-driver-gl.c b/cogl/driver/gl/gl/cogl-driver-gl.c
index e4b45cb59..713390cc5 100644
--- a/cogl/driver/gl/gl/cogl-driver-gl.c
+++ b/cogl/driver/gl/gl/cogl-driver-gl.c
@@ -594,7 +594,8 @@ _cogl_driver_update_features (CoglContext *ctx,
                     COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_FORMAT_CONVERSION |
                     COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_BLEND_CONSTANT |
                     COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_BUILTIN_POINT_SIZE_UNIFORM |
-                    COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_QUERY_TEXTURE_PARAMETERS);
+                    COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_QUERY_TEXTURE_PARAMETERS |
+                    COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_TEXTURE_MAX_LEVEL);
 
   /* Cache features */
   ctx->private_feature_flags |= private_flags;
diff --git a/cogl/driver/gl/gl/cogl-texture-driver-gl.c b/cogl/driver/gl/gl/cogl-texture-driver-gl.c
index 4fce7abc7..46da7f62f 100644
--- a/cogl/driver/gl/gl/cogl-texture-driver-gl.c
+++ b/cogl/driver/gl/gl/cogl-texture-driver-gl.c
@@ -73,7 +73,10 @@ _cogl_texture_driver_gen (CoglContext *ctx,
        * level to 0 so OpenGL will consider the texture storage to be
        * "complete".
        */
-      GE( ctx, glTexParameteri (gl_target, GL_TEXTURE_MAX_LEVEL, 0));
+#ifdef HAVE_COGL_GL
+      if ((ctx->private_feature_flags & COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_TEXTURE_MAX_LEVEL))
+        GE( ctx, glTexParameteri (gl_target, GL_TEXTURE_MAX_LEVEL, 0));
+#endif
 
       /* GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER defaults to GL_LINEAR, no need to set it */
       GE( ctx, glTexParameteri (gl_target,
diff --git a/cogl/driver/gl/gles/cogl-texture-driver-gles.c b/cogl/driver/gl/gles/cogl-texture-driver-gles.c
index 77de3acc1..4162dbc05 100644
--- a/cogl/driver/gl/gles/cogl-texture-driver-gles.c
+++ b/cogl/driver/gl/gles/cogl-texture-driver-gles.c
@@ -82,14 +82,6 @@ _cogl_texture_driver_gen (CoglContext *ctx,
     {
     case GL_TEXTURE_2D:
     case GL_TEXTURE_3D:
-      /* In case automatic mipmap generation gets disabled for this
-       * texture but a minification filter depending on mipmap
-       * interpolation is selected then we initialize the max mipmap
-       * level to 0 so OpenGL will consider the texture storage to be
-       * "complete".
-       */
-      GE( ctx, glTexParameteri (gl_target, GL_TEXTURE_MAX_LEVEL, 0));
-
       /* GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER defaults to GL_LINEAR, no need to set it */
       GE( ctx, glTexParameteri (gl_target,
                                 GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER,