diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
index 2ee4d9283738..83b5d5280e99 100644
--- a/mm/vmscan.c
+++ b/mm/vmscan.c
@@ -2620,18 +2620,6 @@ static inline bool should_continue_reclaim(struct pglist_data *pgdat,
 			return false;
 	}
 
-	/*
-	 * If we have not reclaimed enough pages for compaction and the
-	 * inactive lists are large enough, continue reclaiming
-	 */
-	pages_for_compaction = compact_gap(sc->order);
-	inactive_lru_pages = node_page_state(pgdat, NR_INACTIVE_FILE);
-	if (get_nr_swap_pages() > 0)
-		inactive_lru_pages += node_page_state(pgdat, NR_INACTIVE_ANON);
-	if (sc->nr_reclaimed < pages_for_compaction &&
-			inactive_lru_pages > pages_for_compaction)
-		return true;
-
 	/* If compaction would go ahead or the allocation would succeed, stop */
 	for (z = 0; z <= sc->reclaim_idx; z++) {
 		struct zone *zone = &pgdat->node_zones[z];
@@ -2647,7 +2635,21 @@ static inline bool should_continue_reclaim(struct pglist_data *pgdat,
 			;
 		}
 	}
-	return true;
+
+	/*
+	 * If we have not reclaimed enough pages for compaction and the
+	 * inactive lists are large enough, continue reclaiming
+	 */
+	pages_for_compaction = compact_gap(sc->order);
+	inactive_lru_pages = node_page_state(pgdat, NR_INACTIVE_FILE);
+	if (get_nr_swap_pages() > 0)
+		inactive_lru_pages += node_page_state(pgdat, NR_INACTIVE_ANON);
+
+	return inactive_lru_pages > pages_for_compaction &&
+		/*
+		 * avoid dryrun with plenty of inactive pages
+		 */
+		nr_scanned && nr_reclaimed;
 }
 
 static bool pgdat_memcg_congested(pg_data_t *pgdat, struct mem_cgroup *memcg)