diff --git a/tinygrad/codegen/gpu.py b/tinygrad/codegen/gpu.py
index 0f19d6c733..6b22ce6474 100644
--- a/tinygrad/codegen/gpu.py
+++ b/tinygrad/codegen/gpu.py
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ class GPUCodegen(ASTKernel):
     assert len(self.sts[buf_index].views) == 1, "store has more than one view"
 
     # all stores can merge, since they have one view and are valid
-    should_upcast = self.lang.float4 and self.buftokens[buf_index].can_float4() and (self.bufs[buf_index].dtype != dtypes.float16 and not hasattr(self.bufs[buf_index]._buf, "IMAGE"))
+    should_upcast = self.lang.float4 and self.buftokens[buf_index].can_float4() and (self.bufs[buf_index].dtype != dtypes.float16 or hasattr(self.bufs[buf_index]._buf, "IMAGE"))
 
     to_store = {o:v for o,v in zip(self.buftokens[buf_index].offsets(), value)}
     did_store = set()
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ class GPUCodegen(ASTKernel):
       val = self.bufs[buf_index]._backing[0]
       assert not math.isnan(val)
       const = Token(f"({val}f)", Types.FLOAT)
-    should_upcast = self.lang.float4 and const is None and self.buftokens[buf_index].can_float4() and (self.bufs[buf_index].dtype != dtypes.float16 and not hasattr(self.bufs[buf_index]._buf, "IMAGE"))
+    should_upcast = self.lang.float4 and const is None and self.buftokens[buf_index].can_float4() and (self.bufs[buf_index] is None or self.bufs[buf_index].dtype != dtypes.float16 or hasattr(self.bufs[buf_index]._buf, "IMAGE"))
     tokens = []
     test_idy = []
     for o in self.buftokens[buf_index].offsets():