diff --git a/drivers/cpufreq/amd-pstate.c b/drivers/cpufreq/amd-pstate.c
index 701f49d6d2402e..204e39006dda8f 100644
--- a/drivers/cpufreq/amd-pstate.c
+++ b/drivers/cpufreq/amd-pstate.c
@@ -59,12 +59,8 @@
  * we disable it by default to go acpi-cpufreq on these processors and add a
  * module parameter to be able to enable it manually for debugging.
  */
-static bool shared_mem = false;
-module_param(shared_mem, bool, 0444);
-MODULE_PARM_DESC(shared_mem,
-		 "enable amd-pstate on processors with shared memory solution (false = disabled (default), true = enabled)");
-
 static struct cpufreq_driver amd_pstate_driver;
+static int cppc_load __initdata;
 
 static inline int pstate_enable(bool enable)
 {
@@ -626,6 +622,15 @@ static int __init amd_pstate_init(void)
 
 	if (boot_cpu_data.x86_vendor != X86_VENDOR_AMD)
 		return -ENODEV;
+	/*
+	 * by default the pstate driver is disabled to load
+	 * enable the amd_pstate passive mode driver explicitly
+	 * with amd_pstate=passive in kernel command line
+	 */
+	if (!cppc_load) {
+		pr_debug("driver load is disabled, boot with amd_pstate=passive to enable this\n");
+		return -ENODEV;
+	}
 
 	if (!acpi_cpc_valid()) {
 		pr_warn_once("the _CPC object is not present in SBIOS or ACPI disabled\n");
@@ -640,13 +645,11 @@ static int __init amd_pstate_init(void)
 	if (boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_CPPC)) {
 		pr_debug("AMD CPPC MSR based functionality is supported\n");
 		amd_pstate_driver.adjust_perf = amd_pstate_adjust_perf;
-	} else if (shared_mem) {
+	} else {
+		pr_debug("AMD CPPC shared memory based functionality is supported\n");
 		static_call_update(amd_pstate_enable, cppc_enable);
 		static_call_update(amd_pstate_init_perf, cppc_init_perf);
 		static_call_update(amd_pstate_update_perf, cppc_update_perf);
-	} else {
-		pr_info("This processor supports shared memory solution, you can enable it with amd_pstate.shared_mem=1\n");
-		return -ENODEV;
 	}
 
 	/* enable amd pstate feature */
@@ -665,6 +668,21 @@ static int __init amd_pstate_init(void)
 }
 device_initcall(amd_pstate_init);
 
+static int __init amd_pstate_param(char *str)
+{
+	if (!str)
+		return -EINVAL;
+
+	if (!strcmp(str, "disable")) {
+		cppc_load = 0;
+		pr_info("driver is explicitly disabled\n");
+	} else if (!strcmp(str, "passive"))
+		cppc_load = 1;
+
+	return 0;
+}
+early_param("amd_pstate", amd_pstate_param);
+
 MODULE_AUTHOR("Huang Rui <ray.huang@amd.com>");
 MODULE_DESCRIPTION("AMD Processor P-state Frequency Driver");
 MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");