diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
index 8c463cf2050a..9e81a0ddafac 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c
@@ -2021,9 +2021,6 @@ i915_gem_object_unbind(struct drm_gem_object *obj)
 	/* blow away mappings if mapped through GTT */
 	i915_gem_release_mmap(obj);
 
-	if (obj_priv->fence_reg != I915_FENCE_REG_NONE)
-		i915_gem_clear_fence_reg(obj);
-
 	/* Move the object to the CPU domain to ensure that
 	 * any possible CPU writes while it's not in the GTT
 	 * are flushed when we go to remap it. This will
@@ -2039,6 +2036,10 @@ i915_gem_object_unbind(struct drm_gem_object *obj)
 
 	BUG_ON(obj_priv->active);
 
+	/* release the fence reg _after_ flushing */
+	if (obj_priv->fence_reg != I915_FENCE_REG_NONE)
+		i915_gem_clear_fence_reg(obj);
+
 	if (obj_priv->agp_mem != NULL) {
 		drm_unbind_agp(obj_priv->agp_mem);
 		drm_free_agp(obj_priv->agp_mem, obj->size / PAGE_SIZE);