diff --git a/hw/mips/loongson3_virt.c b/hw/mips/loongson3_virt.c
index 25534288dd..216812f660 100644
--- a/hw/mips/loongson3_virt.c
+++ b/hw/mips/loongson3_virt.c
@@ -406,6 +406,7 @@ static inline void loongson3_virt_devices_init(MachineState *machine,
     PCIBus *pci_bus;
     DeviceState *dev;
     MemoryRegion *mmio_reg, *ecam_reg;
+    MachineClass *mc = MACHINE_GET_CLASS(machine);
     LoongsonMachineState *s = LOONGSON_MACHINE(machine);
 
     dev = qdev_new(TYPE_GPEX_HOST);
@@ -456,7 +457,7 @@ static inline void loongson3_virt_devices_init(MachineState *machine,
         NICInfo *nd = &nd_table[i];
 
         if (!nd->model) {
-            nd->model = g_strdup("virtio");
+            nd->model = g_strdup(mc->default_nic);
         }
 
         pci_nic_init_nofail(nd, pci_bus, nd->model, NULL);
@@ -619,6 +620,7 @@ static void loongson3v_machine_class_init(ObjectClass *oc, void *data)
     mc->default_ram_size = 1600 * MiB;
     mc->kvm_type = mips_kvm_type;
     mc->minimum_page_bits = 14;
+    mc->default_nic = "virtio-net-pci";
 }
 
 static const TypeInfo loongson3_machine_types[] = {