diff --git a/arch/x86/cpu/coreboot/Kconfig b/arch/x86/cpu/coreboot/Kconfig
index 93f61f2fa4..c8e6a889d0 100644
--- a/arch/x86/cpu/coreboot/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/x86/cpu/coreboot/Kconfig
@@ -24,5 +24,6 @@ config SYS_COREBOOT
 	imply CMD_CBFS
 	imply FS_CBFS
 	imply CBMEM_CONSOLE
+	imply X86_TSC_READ_BASE
 
 endif
diff --git a/arch/x86/cpu/slimbootloader/Kconfig b/arch/x86/cpu/slimbootloader/Kconfig
index 3ea4c9958c..58a9ca01a9 100644
--- a/arch/x86/cpu/slimbootloader/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/x86/cpu/slimbootloader/Kconfig
@@ -17,3 +17,4 @@ config SYS_SLIMBOOTLOADER
 	imply USB_EHCI_HCD
 	imply USB_XHCI_HCD
 	imply E1000
+	imply X86_TSC_READ_BASE
diff --git a/drivers/timer/Kconfig b/drivers/timer/Kconfig
index 5f4bc6edb6..41f9755133 100644
--- a/drivers/timer/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/timer/Kconfig
@@ -174,6 +174,20 @@ config X86_TSC_TIMER
 	help
 	  Select this to enable Time-Stamp Counter (TSC) timer for x86.
 
+config X86_TSC_READ_BASE
+	bool "Read the TSC timer base on start-up"
+	depends on X86_TSC_TIMER
+	help
+	  On x86 platforms the TSC timer tick starts at the value 0 on reset.
+	  This it makes no sense to read the timer on boot and use that as the
+	  base, since we will miss some time taken to load U-Boot, etc. This
+	  delay is controlled by the SoC and we cannot reduce it, but for
+	  bootstage we want to record the time since reset as accurately as
+	  possible.
+
+	  The only exception is when U-Boot is used as a secondary bootloader,
+	  where this option should be enabled.
+
 config MTK_TIMER
 	bool "MediaTek timer support"
 	depends on TIMER
diff --git a/drivers/timer/tsc_timer.c b/drivers/timer/tsc_timer.c
index 0df551f94c..813817f467 100644
--- a/drivers/timer/tsc_timer.c
+++ b/drivers/timer/tsc_timer.c
@@ -397,7 +397,8 @@ static void tsc_timer_ensure_setup(bool early)
 {
 	if (gd->arch.tsc_inited)
 		return;
-	gd->arch.tsc_base = rdtsc();
+	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_X86_TSC_READ_BASE))
+		gd->arch.tsc_base = rdtsc();
 
 	if (!gd->arch.clock_rate) {
 		unsigned long fast_calibrate;
diff --git a/lib/efi/Kconfig b/lib/efi/Kconfig
index 919e314a0c..93b8564492 100644
--- a/lib/efi/Kconfig
+++ b/lib/efi/Kconfig
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 config EFI
 	bool "Support running U-Boot from EFI"
 	depends on X86
+	imply X86_TSC_READ_BASE
 	help
 	  U-Boot can be started from EFI on certain platforms. This allows
 	  EFI to perform most of the system init and then jump to U-Boot for