diff --git a/lib/internal/streams/readable.js b/lib/internal/streams/readable.js
index 33d43aa552b075..3d37f277a37779 100644
--- a/lib/internal/streams/readable.js
+++ b/lib/internal/streams/readable.js
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ const {
   codes: {
     ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE,
     ERR_METHOD_NOT_IMPLEMENTED,
+    ERR_OUT_OF_RANGE,
     ERR_STREAM_PUSH_AFTER_EOF,
     ERR_STREAM_UNSHIFT_AFTER_END_EVENT,
   }
@@ -363,9 +364,8 @@ Readable.prototype.setEncoding = function(enc) {
 // Don't raise the hwm > 1GB.
 const MAX_HWM = 0x40000000;
 function computeNewHighWaterMark(n) {
-  if (n >= MAX_HWM) {
-    // TODO(ronag): Throw ERR_VALUE_OUT_OF_RANGE.
-    n = MAX_HWM;
+  if (n > MAX_HWM) {
+    throw new ERR_OUT_OF_RANGE('size', '<= 1GiB', n);
   } else {
     // Get the next highest power of 2 to prevent increasing hwm excessively in
     // tiny amounts.
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-streams-highwatermark.js b/test/parallel/test-streams-highwatermark.js
index 18c53b1032e849..7018c5bf29ce08 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-streams-highwatermark.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-streams-highwatermark.js
@@ -70,3 +70,18 @@ const { inspect } = require('util');
     assert.strictEqual(readable._readableState.highWaterMark, Number(size));
   });
 }
+
+{
+  // Test highwatermark limit
+  const hwm = 0x40000000 + 1;
+  const readable = stream.Readable({
+    read() {},
+  });
+
+  assert.throws(() => readable.read(hwm), common.expectsError({
+    code: 'ERR_OUT_OF_RANGE',
+    message: 'The value of "size" is out of range.' +
+             ' It must be <= 1GiB. Received ' +
+             hwm,
+  }));
+}