diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 71e23f041..528d94ca6 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -181,9 +181,10 @@ if (LLAMA_METAL)
         #
         # note: this is the only way I found to disable fast-math in Metal. it's ugly, but at least it works
         #       disabling fast math is needed in order to pass tests/test-backend-ops
+        # note: adding -fno-inline fixes the tests when using MTL_SHADER_VALIDATION=1
         add_custom_command(
             OUTPUT ${CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY}/ggml.metallib
-            COMMAND xcrun -sdk macosx metal -fno-fast-math -c ${CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY}/ggml-metal.metal -o ${CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY}/ggml-metal.air
+            COMMAND xcrun -sdk macosx metal -fno-fast-math -fno-inline -c ${CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY}/ggml-metal.metal -o ${CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY}/ggml-metal.air
             COMMAND xcrun -sdk macosx metallib ${CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY}/ggml-metal.air -o ${CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY}/ggml.metallib
             DEPENDS ggml-metal.metal
             COMMENT "Compiling Metal kernels"