diff --git a/src/convolutional_kernels.cu b/src/convolutional_kernels.cu
index 7d4ef8f5..44f62ed3 100644
--- a/src/convolutional_kernels.cu
+++ b/src/convolutional_kernels.cu
@@ -295,8 +295,7 @@ void forward_convolutional_layer_gpu(convolutional_layer l, network_state state)
 //#ifdef CUDNN_HALF
     //if (state.use_mixed_precision) {
     int iteration_num = (*state.net.seen) / (state.net.batch*state.net.subdivisions);
-    if (state.net.cudnn_half && !l.xnor && (!state.train || iteration_num > 3*state.net.burn_in))
-        //if(state.index != 0)
+    if (state.index != 0 && state.net.cudnn_half && !l.xnor && (!state.train || iteration_num > 3*state.net.burn_in))
     {
         //printf("\n CUDNN_HALF!!! state.index = %d \n", state.index);
 
@@ -476,8 +475,7 @@ void backward_convolutional_layer_gpu(convolutional_layer l, network_state state
 
 //#ifdef CUDNN_HALF
     int iteration_num = (*state.net.seen) / (state.net.batch*state.net.subdivisions);
-    if (state.net.cudnn_half && !l.xnor && (!state.train || iteration_num > 3*state.net.burn_in))
-        //if (state.index != 0)
+    if (state.index != 0 && state.net.cudnn_half && !l.xnor && (!state.train || iteration_num > 3*state.net.burn_in))
     {
 
         const size_t input16_size = l.batch*l.c*l.w*l.h;
diff --git a/src/parser.c b/src/parser.c
index c1647666..b01c5458 100644
--- a/src/parser.c
+++ b/src/parser.c
@@ -732,6 +732,8 @@ network parse_network_cfg_custom(char *filename, int batch)
 
     float bflops = 0;
     size_t workspace_size = 0;
+    size_t max_inputs = 0;
+    size_t max_outputs = 0;
     n = n->next;
     int count = 0;
     free_section(s);
@@ -806,6 +808,8 @@ network parse_network_cfg_custom(char *filename, int batch)
         option_unused(options);
         net.layers[count] = l;
         if (l.workspace_size > workspace_size) workspace_size = l.workspace_size;
+        if (l.inputs > max_inputs) max_inputs = l.inputs;
+        if (l.outputs > max_outputs) max_outputs = l.outputs;
         free_section(s);
         n = n->next;
         ++count;
@@ -828,6 +832,14 @@ network parse_network_cfg_custom(char *filename, int batch)
             net.workspace = cuda_make_array(0, workspace_size/sizeof(float) + 1);
             int size = get_network_input_size(net) * net.batch;
             net.input_state_gpu = cuda_make_array(0, size);
+
+            // pre-allocate memory for inference on Tensor Cores (fp16)
+            if (net.cudnn_half) {
+                *net.max_input16_size = max_inputs;
+                check_error(cudaMalloc((void **)net.input16_gpu, *net.max_input16_size * sizeof(short))); //sizeof(half)
+                *net.max_output16_size = max_outputs;
+                check_error(cudaMalloc((void **)net.output16_gpu, *net.max_output16_size * sizeof(short))); //sizeof(half)
+            }
         }else {
             net.workspace = calloc(1, workspace_size);
         }