diff --git a/src/panfrost/lib/pan_desc.c b/src/panfrost/lib/pan_desc.c
index c4ccd0320e7..53f9a6459da 100644
--- a/src/panfrost/lib/pan_desc.c
+++ b/src/panfrost/lib/pan_desc.c
@@ -354,15 +354,23 @@ pan_bytes_per_pixel_tib(enum pipe_format format)
 static unsigned
 pan_cbuf_bytes_per_pixel(const struct pan_fb_info *fb)
 {
+   /* dummy/non-existent render-targets use RGBA8 UNORM, e.g 4 bytes */
+   const unsigned dummy_rt_size = 4 * fb->nr_samples;
+
    unsigned sum = 0;
 
+   if (!fb->rt_count) {
+      /* The HW needs at least one render-target */
+      return dummy_rt_size;
+   }
+
    for (int cb = 0; cb < fb->rt_count; ++cb) {
+      unsigned rt_size = dummy_rt_size;
       const struct pan_image_view *rt = fb->rts[cb].view;
+      if (rt)
+         rt_size = pan_bytes_per_pixel_tib(rt->format) * rt->nr_samples;
 
-      if (!rt)
-         continue;
-
-      sum += pan_bytes_per_pixel_tib(rt->format) * rt->nr_samples;
+      sum += rt_size;
    }
 
    return sum;