diff --git a/tinygrad/renderer/cstyle.py b/tinygrad/renderer/cstyle.py
index 851727d846..830e588137 100644
--- a/tinygrad/renderer/cstyle.py
+++ b/tinygrad/renderer/cstyle.py
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ class CStyleLanguage(Renderer):
 
       if u.op in {Ops.ENDIF, Ops.ENDRANGE}: depth -= 1
       if (u.op is not Ops.CAST or u.dtype.vcount == 1) and (u.op in {Ops.CONST, Ops.GEP, Ops.INDEX, Ops.CUSTOMI} or \
-        (u.op in {Ops.VECTORIZE, *GroupOp.ALU, Ops.CAST, Ops.BITCAST} and child_count[u] == 1 and not getenv("EXPAND_SSA"))):
+        (u.op in {Ops.VECTORIZE, *(GroupOp.ALU-{Ops.WHERE}), Ops.CAST, Ops.BITCAST} and child_count[u] == 1 and not getenv("EXPAND_SSA"))):
         r[u] = l
       else:
         if u.op in {Ops.RANGE, Ops.ASSIGN, Ops.DEFINE_LOCAL} or u.dtype == dtypes.void: