diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/vtk/generic.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/vtk/generic.nix
index fb2b11511b99..a3d3824a5410 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/vtk/generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/vtk/generic.nix
@@ -67,8 +67,8 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   cmakeFlags = [
     "-DCMAKE_C_FLAGS=-fPIC"
     "-DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=-fPIC"
-    "-DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_PNG=ON"
-    "-DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_TIFF=1"
+    "-D${if lib.versionOlder version "9.0" then "VTK_USE_SYSTEM_PNG" else "VTK_MODULE_USE_EXTERNAL_vtkpng"}=ON"
+    "-D${if lib.versionOlder version "9.0" then "VTK_USE_SYSTEM_TIFF" else "VTK_MODULE_USE_EXTERNAL_vtktiff"}=1"
     "-DOPENGL_INCLUDE_DIR=${libGL}/include"
     "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR=lib"
     "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR=include"