diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-backend.cpp b/ggml/src/ggml-backend.cpp
index 354876574a..c43fdcca64 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-backend.cpp
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-backend.cpp
@@ -1453,6 +1453,10 @@ static enum ggml_status ggml_backend_sched_compute_splits(ggml_backend_sched_t s
         int split_backend_id = split->backend_id;
         ggml_backend_t split_backend = sched->backends[split_backend_id];
 
+        if (sched->events[split_backend_id][sched->cur_copy] == NULL) {
+            ggml_backend_synchronize(split_backend);
+        }
+
         // copy the input tensors to the split backend
         for (int input_id = 0; input_id < split->n_inputs; input_id++) {
             ggml_backend_t input_backend = ggml_backend_sched_get_tensor_backend(sched, split->inputs[input_id]);
@@ -1463,16 +1467,12 @@ static enum ggml_status ggml_backend_sched_compute_splits(ggml_backend_sched_t s
                 // inputs from the user must be copied immediately to prevent the user overwriting the data before the copy is done
                 if (sched->events[split_backend_id][sched->cur_copy] != NULL) {
                     ggml_backend_event_synchronize(sched->events[split_backend_id][sched->cur_copy]);
-                } else {
-                    ggml_backend_synchronize(split_backend);
                 }
-                ggml_backend_tensor_copy(input, input_cpy);
+                ggml_backend_tensor_copy_async(input_backend, split_backend, input, input_cpy);
             } else {
                 // wait for the split backend to finish using the input before overwriting it
                 if (sched->events[split_backend_id][sched->cur_copy] != NULL) {
                     ggml_backend_event_wait(split_backend, sched->events[split_backend_id][sched->cur_copy]);
-                } else {
-                    ggml_backend_synchronize(split_backend);
                 }
 
                 // when offloading MoE weights, we can reduce the amount of data copied by copying only the experts that are used
@@ -1576,6 +1576,10 @@ static enum ggml_status ggml_backend_sched_compute_splits(ggml_backend_sched_t s
             }
         }
 
+        if (sched->events[split_backend_id][sched->cur_copy] == NULL) {
+            ggml_backend_synchronize(split_backend);
+        }
+
         if (!sched->callback_eval) {
             enum ggml_status ec = ggml_backend_graph_compute_async(split_backend, &split->graph);
             if (ec != GGML_STATUS_SUCCESS) {
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-cuda/ggml-cuda.cu b/ggml/src/ggml-cuda/ggml-cuda.cu
index 08383edb40..b0abffc132 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-cuda/ggml-cuda.cu
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-cuda/ggml-cuda.cu
@@ -2794,11 +2794,14 @@ static bool ggml_backend_cuda_cpy_tensor_async(ggml_backend_t backend_src, ggml_
     ggml_backend_buffer_t buf_src = src->view_src ? src->view_src->buffer : src->buffer;
     ggml_backend_buffer_t buf_dst = dst->view_src ? dst->view_src->buffer : dst->buffer;
 
-    if (!ggml_backend_is_cuda(backend_src) || !ggml_backend_is_cuda(backend_dst)) {
+    //enables async copies from CPU to CUDA, instead of only CUDA-to-CUDA
+    bool copy_from_host = ggml_backend_buffer_is_host(src->buffer) && ggml_backend_dev_type(backend_src->device) == GGML_BACKEND_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU;
+
+    if (!(copy_from_host || ggml_backend_is_cuda(backend_src)) || !ggml_backend_is_cuda(backend_dst)) {
         return false;
     }
 
-    if (!ggml_backend_buffer_is_cuda(src->buffer) || !ggml_backend_buffer_is_cuda(dst->buffer)) {
+    if (!(copy_from_host || ggml_backend_buffer_is_cuda(src->buffer)) || !ggml_backend_buffer_is_cuda(dst->buffer)) {
         return false;
     }
 
@@ -2809,14 +2812,17 @@ static bool ggml_backend_cuda_cpy_tensor_async(ggml_backend_t backend_src, ggml_
     ggml_backend_cuda_buffer_context * buf_ctx_src = (ggml_backend_cuda_buffer_context *)buf_src->context;
     ggml_backend_cuda_buffer_context * buf_ctx_dst = (ggml_backend_cuda_buffer_context *)buf_dst->context;
 
-    if (cuda_ctx_src->device != buf_ctx_src->device || cuda_ctx_dst->device != buf_ctx_dst->device) {
+    if ((copy_from_host && cuda_ctx_dst->device != buf_ctx_dst->device) ||
+        !copy_from_host && (cuda_ctx_src->device != buf_ctx_src->device || cuda_ctx_dst->device != buf_ctx_dst->device)) {
 #ifndef NDEBUG
         GGML_LOG_DEBUG("%s: backend and buffer devices do not match\n", __func__);
 #endif
         return false;
     }
 
-    if (backend_src != backend_dst) {
+    if (copy_from_host) {
+        CUDA_CHECK(cudaMemcpyAsync(dst->data, src->data, ggml_nbytes(dst), cudaMemcpyHostToDevice, cuda_ctx_dst->stream()));
+    } else if (backend_src != backend_dst) {
         // copy on src stream
         if (cuda_ctx_src->device == cuda_ctx_dst->device) {
             CUDA_CHECK(cudaMemcpyAsync(dst->data, src->data, ggml_nbytes(dst), cudaMemcpyDeviceToDevice, cuda_ctx_src->stream()));