diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.c b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.c
index 8f7eb3ad88fcb97469ee9e3c5d5a02440b18ea77..5521608077ec093d29da442407dd12745430ec08 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/mmu/spte.c
@@ -226,12 +226,20 @@ bool make_spte(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct kvm_mmu_page *sp,
 		spte |= PT_WRITABLE_MASK | shadow_mmu_writable_mask;
 
 		/*
-		 * Optimization: for pte sync, if spte was writable the hash
-		 * lookup is unnecessary (and expensive). Write protection
-		 * is responsibility of kvm_mmu_get_page / kvm_mmu_sync_roots.
-		 * Same reasoning can be applied to dirty page accounting.
+		 * When overwriting an existing leaf SPTE, and the old SPTE was
+		 * writable, skip trying to unsync shadow pages as any relevant
+		 * shadow pages must already be unsync, i.e. the hash lookup is
+		 * unnecessary (and expensive).
+		 *
+		 * The same reasoning applies to dirty page/folio accounting;
+		 * KVM will mark the folio dirty using the old SPTE, thus
+		 * there's no need to immediately mark the new SPTE as dirty.
+		 *
+		 * Note, both cases rely on KVM not changing PFNs without first
+		 * zapping the old SPTE, which is guaranteed by both the shadow
+		 * MMU and the TDP MMU.
 		 */
-		if (is_writable_pte(old_spte))
+		if (is_last_spte(old_spte, level) && is_writable_pte(old_spte))
 			goto out;
 
 		/*