diff --git a/tinygrad/uop/ops.py b/tinygrad/uop/ops.py
index d7016daf3f..836a355a6d 100644
--- a/tinygrad/uop/ops.py
+++ b/tinygrad/uop/ops.py
@@ -98,7 +98,6 @@ buffers:weakref.WeakKeyDictionary[UOp, Buffer|MultiBuffer] = weakref.WeakKeyDict
 all_metadata:weakref.WeakKeyDictionary[UOp, tuple[Metadata, ...]] = weakref.WeakKeyDictionary() # TODO: should this be here?
 
 # recursive_property replaces functools.cached_property in recursive UOp functions to prevent RecursionError
-_NOT_FOUND = object()
 class recursive_property(property):
   def __init__(self, fxn):
     self.fxn = fxn
@@ -106,10 +105,16 @@ class recursive_property(property):
     self.__doc__ = fxn.__doc__
   def __get__(self, x:UOp|None, owner=None):
     if x is None: return self
-    if (val:=x.__dict__.get(self.nm, _NOT_FOUND)) is _NOT_FOUND:
-      for s in x.toposort(lambda z: not hasattr(z, self.nm)):
-        s.__dict__[self.nm] = val = self.fxn(s)
-    return val
+    # this is very similar to toposort/topovisit
+    stack: list[tuple[UOp, bool]] = [(x, False)]
+    while stack:
+      node, visited = stack.pop()
+      if self.nm in node.__dict__: continue
+      if not visited:
+        stack.append((node, True))
+        for s in reversed(node.src): stack.append((s, False))
+      else: node.__dict__[self.nm] = self.fxn(node)
+    return x.__dict__[self.nm]
 
 # we import this late so we can use resolve/smax in mixins
 from tinygrad.mixin import OpMixin