diff --git a/timm/utils.py b/timm/utils.py
index 59d2bcd0..1da69a96 100644
--- a/timm/utils.py
+++ b/timm/utils.py
@@ -259,7 +259,7 @@ class ModelEma:
             p.requires_grad_(False)
 
     def _load_checkpoint(self, checkpoint_path):
-        checkpoint = torch.load(checkpoint_path)
+        checkpoint = torch.load(checkpoint_path, map_location='cpu')
         assert isinstance(checkpoint, dict)
         if 'state_dict_ema' in checkpoint:
             new_state_dict = OrderedDict()