diff --git a/vp9/encoder/vp9_pickmode.c b/vp9/encoder/vp9_pickmode.c
index 3f4fcd1e1ac7991eca6ea6d977b2ed7df215c1a8..9f39b8dd811c700be0d007ef849b43e2efcac350 100644
--- a/vp9/encoder/vp9_pickmode.c
+++ b/vp9/encoder/vp9_pickmode.c
@@ -469,7 +469,7 @@ int64_t vp9_pick_inter_mode(VP9_COMP *cpi, MACROBLOCK *x,
   // Perform intra prediction search, if the best SAD is above a certain
   // threshold.
   if (!x->skip && best_rd > inter_mode_thresh &&
-      bsize < cpi->sf.max_intra_bsize) {
+      bsize <= cpi->sf.max_intra_bsize) {
     for (this_mode = DC_PRED; this_mode <= DC_PRED; ++this_mode) {
       vp9_predict_intra_block(xd, 0, b_width_log2(bsize),
                               mbmi->tx_size, this_mode,
diff --git a/vp9/encoder/vp9_speed_features.c b/vp9/encoder/vp9_speed_features.c
index 6beb8723432d1b508c7401f1bd56231a1cf6e215..83d900d4296043b12f697176a296c9ea2af9942e 100644
--- a/vp9/encoder/vp9_speed_features.c
+++ b/vp9/encoder/vp9_speed_features.c
@@ -270,6 +270,10 @@ static void set_rt_speed_feature(VP9_COMP *cpi, SPEED_FEATURES *sf,
     sf->source_var_thresh = 360;
 
     sf->tx_size_search_method = USE_TX_8X8;
+    // TODO(yunqingwang): max_intra_bsize is used to decide if DC_PRED mode
+    // is checked for a partition block. Later, we can try to allow large
+    // partitions to do intra mode checking.
+    sf->max_intra_bsize = BLOCK_8X8;
   }
 
   if (speed >= 7) {