diff --git a/ggml-cuda/fattn.cu b/ggml-cuda/fattn.cu
index 455510684..8082e9464 100644
--- a/ggml-cuda/fattn.cu
+++ b/ggml-cuda/fattn.cu
@@ -106,10 +106,15 @@ static __global__ void flash_attn_vec_ext_f16(
     const int k_start = parallel_blocks == 1 ? 0 : ip*D;
     for (int k_VKQ_0 = k_start; k_VKQ_0 < ne11; k_VKQ_0 += parallel_blocks*D) {
         // Calculate KQ tile and keep track of new maximum KQ values:
-        half kqmax_new[ncols];
+
+        // For unknown reasons using a half array of size 1 for kqmax_new causes a performance regression,
+        // see https://github.com/ggerganov/llama.cpp/pull/7061 .
+        // Therefore this variable is defined twice but only used once (so that the compiler can optimize out the unused variable).
+        half kqmax_new = kqmax[0];
+        half kqmax_new_arr[ncols];
 #pragma unroll
         for (int j = 0; j < ncols; ++j) {
-            kqmax_new[j] = kqmax[j];
+            kqmax_new_arr[j] = kqmax[j];
         }
 
 #pragma unroll
@@ -137,7 +142,13 @@ static __global__ void flash_attn_vec_ext_f16(
                 sum2[j] = warp_reduce_sum(sum2[j]);
                 half sum = __low2half(sum2[j]) + __high2half(sum2[j]);
                 sum += mask ? maskh[j*ne11 + k_VKQ_0 + i_KQ] : __float2half(0.0f);
-                kqmax_new[j] = ggml_cuda_hmax(kqmax_new[j], sum);
+
+                if (ncols == 1) {
+                    kqmax_new        = ggml_cuda_hmax(kqmax_new,        sum);
+                } else {
+                    kqmax_new_arr[j] = ggml_cuda_hmax(kqmax_new_arr[j], sum);
+                }
+
                 if (threadIdx.x == 0) {
                     KQ[j*D + i_KQ] = sum;
                 }
@@ -146,9 +157,11 @@ static __global__ void flash_attn_vec_ext_f16(
 
 #pragma unroll
         for (int j = 0; j < ncols; ++j) {
-            kqmax_new[j] = warp_reduce_max(kqmax_new[j]);
+            half kqmax_new_j = ncols == 1 ? kqmax_new : kqmax_new_arr[j];
+
+            kqmax_new_j = warp_reduce_max(kqmax_new_j);
             if (threadIdx.x == 0) {
-                kqmax_shared[j][threadIdx.y] = kqmax_new[j];
+                kqmax_shared[j][threadIdx.y] = kqmax_new_j;
             }
         }
 
@@ -156,11 +169,11 @@ static __global__ void flash_attn_vec_ext_f16(
 
 #pragma unroll
         for (int j = 0; j < ncols; ++j) {
-            kqmax_new[j] = kqmax_shared[j][threadIdx.x];
-            kqmax_new[j] = warp_reduce_max(kqmax_new[j]);
+            half kqmax_new_j = kqmax_shared[j][threadIdx.x];
+            kqmax_new_j = warp_reduce_max(kqmax_new_j);
 
-            const half KQ_max_scale = hexp(kqmax[j] - kqmax_new[j]);
-            kqmax[j] = kqmax_new[j];
+            const half KQ_max_scale = hexp(kqmax[j] - kqmax_new_j);
+            kqmax[j] = kqmax_new_j;
 
             const half val = hexp(KQ[j*D + tid] - kqmax[j]);
             kqsum[j] = kqsum[j]*KQ_max_scale + val;