diff --git a/tinygrad/renderer/assembly.py b/tinygrad/renderer/assembly.py
index c52689dd72..86f576eead 100644
--- a/tinygrad/renderer/assembly.py
+++ b/tinygrad/renderer/assembly.py
@@ -66,10 +66,8 @@ def uops_to_asm(lang:AssemblyLanguage, function_name:str, uops:UOpGraph) -> str:
 
   def ptr_ar(root):
     root.arg = '.shared' if root.vin[0].uop == UOps.DEFINE_LOCAL else '.global'  # move this to the argL
-    if root.vin[0].dtype.itemsize > 1:
-      val = uops.add(UOps.CONST, dtypes.int, tuple(), arg=root.vin[0].dtype.itemsize, insert_before=uops.uops.index(root))
-      ptr = uops.add(UOps.ALU, dtypes.int, (root.vin[1], val), arg=BinaryOps.MUL, insert_before=uops.uops.index(root))
-    else: ptr = root.vin[1]
+    val = uops.add(UOps.CONST, dtypes.int, tuple(), arg=root.vin[0].dtype.itemsize, insert_before=uops.uops.index(root))
+    ptr = uops.add(UOps.ALU, dtypes.int, (root.vin[1], val), arg=BinaryOps.MUL, insert_before=uops.uops.index(root))
     if ptr.uop == UOps.CONST: root.vin = (root.vin[0], ptr) + root.vin[2:]
     else:
       zero = uops.add(UOps.CONST, dtypes.int, tuple(), arg=0, cachable=False, insert_before=uops.uops.index(root))
@@ -98,6 +96,7 @@ def uops_to_asm(lang:AssemblyLanguage, function_name:str, uops:UOpGraph) -> str:
       if o in u.vin and u is not n:
         u.vin = tuple(n if x == o else x for x in u.vin)
     if rew := matcher.rewrite(u): replace[u] = rew
+  uops.remove_childless(set(x for x in uops if x.uop in {UOps.DEFINE_GLOBAL, UOps.PHI, UOps.ENDIF, UOps.ENDLOOP, UOps.STORE}))
 
   def kk(*s: str): kernel.append("\n".join(s))