diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index a2955e1..da52690 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -509,16 +509,26 @@
 	if (!pfn_valid_within(page_to_pfn(buddy)))
 		return 0;
 
-	if (page_zone_id(page) != page_zone_id(buddy))
-		return 0;
-
 	if (page_is_guard(buddy) && page_order(buddy) == order) {
 		VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(page_count(buddy) != 0, buddy);
+
+		if (page_zone_id(page) != page_zone_id(buddy))
+			return 0;
+
 		return 1;
 	}
 
 	if (PageBuddy(buddy) && page_order(buddy) == order) {
 		VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(page_count(buddy) != 0, buddy);
+
+		/*
+		 * zone check is done late to avoid uselessly
+		 * calculating zone/node ids for pages that could
+		 * never merge.
+		 */
+		if (page_zone_id(page) != page_zone_id(buddy))
+			return 0;
+
 		return 1;
 	}
 	return 0;