diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 4b9e89132e..2c7c4d7e92 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ setenv=
     WORKERS={env:WORKERS:-n4}
     oracle: WORKERS={env:WORKERS:-n2}
     nocext: DISABLE_SQLALCHEMY_CEXT=1
+    nomemory: NOMEMORY=--exclude-tag memory-intensive
     cov: COVERAGE={[testenv]cov_args}
     sqlite: SQLITE={env:SQLITE:--db sqlite}
     postgresql: POSTGRESQL={env:POSTGRESQL:--db postgresql}
@@ -66,7 +67,7 @@ passenv=ORACLE_HOME NLS_LANG POSTGRESQL MYSQL ORACLE MSSQL SQLITE WORKERS
 # for nocext, we rm *.so in lib in case we are doing usedevelop=True
 commands=
   {nocext}: sh -c "rm -f lib/sqlalchemy/*.so"
-  {env:BASECOMMAND} {env:WORKERS} {env:SQLITE:} {env:POSTGRESQL:} {env:MYSQL:} {env:ORACLE:} {env:MSSQL:} {env:BACKENDONLY:} {env:COVERAGE:} {posargs}
+  {env:BASECOMMAND} {env:WORKERS} {env:SQLITE:} {env:POSTGRESQL:} {env:MYSQL:} {env:ORACLE:} {env:MSSQL:} {env:BACKENDONLY:} {env:NOMEMORY:} {env:COVERAGE:} {posargs}
   {oracle}: python reap_oracle_dbs.py oracle_idents.txt