diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index bfe70ed228..cf6c48d233 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -7043,11 +7043,11 @@ qemuBuildNumaArgStr(virQEMUDriverConfigPtr cfg,
 
     /* using of -numa memdev= cannot be combined with -numa mem=, thus we
      * need to check which approach to use */
-    for (i = 0; i < ncells; i++) {
-        if (virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_RAM) ||
-            virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_FILE) ||
-            virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_MEMFD)) {
+    if (virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_RAM) ||
+        virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_FILE) ||
+        virQEMUCapsGet(qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_MEMORY_MEMFD)) {
 
+        for (i = 0; i < ncells; i++) {
             if ((rc = qemuBuildMemoryCellBackendStr(def, cfg, i, priv,
                                                     &nodeBackends[i])) < 0)
                 goto cleanup;