diff --git a/tools/setup_helpers/cmake.py b/tools/setup_helpers/cmake.py
index abb9aa4890d..ad0d0fb014b 100644
--- a/tools/setup_helpers/cmake.py
+++ b/tools/setup_helpers/cmake.py
@@ -377,15 +377,6 @@ class CMake:
             # os.sched_getaffinity(0) on platforms that support it.
             max_jobs = max_jobs or str(multiprocessing.cpu_count())
 
-            # This ``if-else'' clause would be unnecessary when cmake
-            # 3.12 becomes minimum, which provides a '-j' option:
-            # build_args += ['-j', max_jobs] would be sufficient by
-            # then. Until then, we use "--" to pass parameters to the
-            # underlying build system.
-            build_args += ["--"]
-            if IS_WINDOWS and not USE_NINJA:
-                # We are likely using msbuild here
-                build_args += [f"/p:CL_MPCount={max_jobs}"]
-            else:
-                build_args += ["-j", max_jobs]
+            # CMake 3.12 provides a '-j' option.
+            build_args += ["-j", max_jobs]
         self.run(build_args, my_env)
diff --git a/tools/test/test_cmake.py b/tools/test/test_cmake.py
index f63578f2440..9cdb800e793 100644
--- a/tools/test/test_cmake.py
+++ b/tools/test/test_cmake.py
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@ class TestCMake(unittest.TestCase):
             ((None, False, False), ["-j", "13"]),  # noqa: E201,E241
             (("6", True, True), ["-j", "6"]),  # noqa: E201,E241
             ((None, True, True), None),  # noqa: E201,E241
-            (("11", False, True), ["/p:CL_MPCount=11"]),  # noqa: E201,E241
-            ((None, False, True), ["/p:CL_MPCount=13"]),  # noqa: E201,E241
+            (("11", False, True), ["-j", "11"]),  # noqa: E201,E241
+            ((None, False, True), ["-j", "13"]),  # noqa: E201,E241
         ]
         for (max_jobs, use_ninja, is_windows), want in cases:
             with self.subTest(