diff --git a/ggml/include/ggml.h b/ggml/include/ggml.h
index 35f0c44ec4..5cb49d0ee4 100644
--- a/ggml/include/ggml.h
+++ b/ggml/include/ggml.h
@@ -2788,6 +2788,12 @@ extern "C" {
             struct ggml_cgraph * cgraph,
             struct ggml_tensor * tensor);
 
+    // add the tensor and its parents to the graph without marking them for compute
+    // the flag is set later, when the tensor is reached from a node that computes
+    GGML_API void ggml_build_forward_order(
+            struct ggml_cgraph * cgraph,
+            struct ggml_tensor * tensor);
+
     GGML_API void ggml_build_backward_expand(
         struct ggml_context *  ctx,        // context for gradient computation
         struct ggml_cgraph  *  cgraph,
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml.c b/ggml/src/ggml.c
index 59191c663e..da7f3a5f2e 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml.c
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml.c
@@ -7200,6 +7200,10 @@ void ggml_build_forward_expand(struct ggml_cgraph * cgraph, struct ggml_tensor *
     ggml_build_forward_impl(cgraph, tensor, true, true);
 }
 
+void ggml_build_forward_order(struct ggml_cgraph * cgraph, struct ggml_tensor * tensor) {
+    ggml_build_forward_impl(cgraph, tensor, true, false);
+}
+
 void ggml_build_backward_expand(
         struct ggml_context *  ctx,
         struct ggml_cgraph  *  cgraph,
diff --git a/tools/mtmd/clip.cpp b/tools/mtmd/clip.cpp
index c77e7cc9d3..b1360fd7d3 100644
--- a/tools/mtmd/clip.cpp
+++ b/tools/mtmd/clip.cpp
@@ -708,9 +708,10 @@ ggml_tensor * clip_graph::build_attn(
         ggml_tensor * sinks) const {
     // these nodes are added to the graph together so that they are not reordered
     // by doing so, the number of splits in the graph is reduced
-    ggml_build_forward_expand(gf, q_cur);
-    ggml_build_forward_expand(gf, k_cur);
-    ggml_build_forward_expand(gf, v_cur);
+    // the order is fixed without the compute flag, so an unselected branch stays out of the compute set
+    ggml_build_forward_order(gf, q_cur);
+    ggml_build_forward_order(gf, k_cur);
+    ggml_build_forward_order(gf, v_cur);
 
     ggml_tensor * q = ggml_permute(ctx0, q_cur, 0, 2, 1, 3);
     //cb(q, "q", il);