diff --git a/src/cargo/core/compiler/context/mod.rs b/src/cargo/core/compiler/context/mod.rs
index 79707b4f303..bda437fa099 100644
--- a/src/cargo/core/compiler/context/mod.rs
+++ b/src/cargo/core/compiler/context/mod.rs
@@ -513,6 +513,6 @@ impl<'a, 'cfg> Context<'a, 'cfg> {
     /// Returns whether when `unit` is built whether it should emit metadata as
     /// well because some compilations rely on that.
     pub fn rmeta_required(&self, unit: &Unit<'a>) -> bool {
-        self.rmeta_required.contains(unit)
+        self.rmeta_required.contains(unit) || self.bcx.config.cli_unstable().timings.is_some()
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/cargo/core/compiler/mod.rs b/src/cargo/core/compiler/mod.rs
index 447cd43329a..52cdcb82233 100644
--- a/src/cargo/core/compiler/mod.rs
+++ b/src/cargo/core/compiler/mod.rs
@@ -698,11 +698,10 @@ fn add_error_format_and_color(
     // prettily, and then when parsing JSON messages from rustc we need to
     // internally understand that we should extract the `rendered` field and
     // present it if we can.
-    let wants_artifacts = pipelined || cx.bcx.config.cli_unstable().timings.is_some();
-    if cx.bcx.build_config.cache_messages() || wants_artifacts {
+    if cx.bcx.build_config.cache_messages() || pipelined {
         cmd.arg("--error-format=json");
         let mut json = String::from("--json=diagnostic-rendered-ansi");
-        if wants_artifacts {
+        if pipelined {
             json.push_str(",artifacts");
         }
         match cx.bcx.build_config.message_format {
@@ -1076,8 +1075,7 @@ struct OutputOptions {
 
 impl OutputOptions {
     fn new<'a>(cx: &Context<'a, '_>, unit: &Unit<'a>) -> OutputOptions {
-        let look_for_metadata_directive =
-            cx.rmeta_required(unit) || cx.bcx.config.cli_unstable().timings.is_some();
+        let look_for_metadata_directive = cx.rmeta_required(unit);
         let color = cx.bcx.config.shell().supports_color();
         let cache_cell = if cx.bcx.build_config.cache_messages() {
             let path = cx.files().message_cache_path(unit);