diff --git a/src/intel/common/i915/intel_gem.h b/src/intel/common/i915/intel_gem.h
index 5852586a17d..a614fe00fba 100644
--- a/src/intel/common/i915/intel_gem.h
+++ b/src/intel/common/i915/intel_gem.h
@@ -146,21 +146,21 @@ static inline int
 i915_gem_execbuf_ioctl(int fd, const struct intel_device_info *info,
                        struct drm_i915_gem_execbuffer2 *execbuf)
 {
-   int ret, retries = 0;
+   int ret, retries;
 
    assert((execbuf->flags & I915_EXEC_FENCE_OUT) == 0);
 
    if (unlikely(info->no_hw))
       return 0;
 
-   while (true) {
+   /* After 80 retries, we spent more than 16s sleeping. */
+   for (retries = 0; retries < 80; retries++) {
       ret = intel_ioctl(fd, DRM_IOCTL_I915_GEM_EXECBUFFER2, execbuf);
 
       if (likely(!(ret && errno == ENOMEM)))
          break;
 
       os_time_sleep(100 * retries * retries);
-      retries++;
    }
 
    return ret;