diff --git a/cmake/cuda.cmake b/cmake/cuda.cmake
index 4c7e0fd3f6ca9abd8f9c79f59351f45f9df3c6be..414e92eb27f56e0670e1977e67c2f5ca9c6bbcc2 100644
--- a/cmake/cuda.cmake
+++ b/cmake/cuda.cmake
@@ -199,10 +199,13 @@ elseif(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE  STREQUAL "MinSizeRel")
     list(APPEND CUDA_NVCC_FLAGS  ${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE})
 endif()
 else(NOT WIN32)
+list(APPEND CUDA_NVCC_FLAGS  "--compiler-options;/bigobj")
 if(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE  STREQUAL "Debug")
-    list(APPEND CUDA_NVCC_FLAGS  "-g -G --compiler-options;/bigobj")
+  list(APPEND CUDA_NVCC_FLAGS  "-g -G")
+  # match the cl's _ITERATOR_DEBUG_LEVEL
+  list(APPEND CUDA_NVCC_FLAGS  "-D_DEBUG")
 elseif(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL "Release")
-  list(APPEND CUDA_NVCC_FLAGS "-O3 -DNDEBUG --compiler-options;/bigobj")
+  list(APPEND CUDA_NVCC_FLAGS "-O3 -DNDEBUG")
 else()
   message(FATAL "Windows only support Release or Debug build now. Please set visual studio build type to Release/Debug, x64 build.")
 endif()