diff --git a/src/strategies/avx2/encode_coding_tree-avx2.c b/src/strategies/avx2/encode_coding_tree-avx2.c
index 9d81b5f1..bd84d05b 100644
--- a/src/strategies/avx2/encode_coding_tree-avx2.c
+++ b/src/strategies/avx2/encode_coding_tree-avx2.c
@@ -38,18 +38,25 @@
 #endif // _andn_u32
 
 /*
- * NOTE: Returns 10, not 11 like SSE and AVX comparisons do, as the bit pattern
- * implying greaterness
+ * NOTE: Unlike SSE/AVX comparisons that would return 11 or 00 for gt/lte,
+ * this'll use 1x and 0x as bit patterns (x: garbage). A couple extra
+ * instructions will get you 11 and 00 if you need to use this as a mask
+ * somewhere at some point, but we don't need this right now.
+ *
+ * I'd love to draw a logic circuit here to describe this, but I can't. Two
+ * 2-bit uints can be compared for greaterness by first comparing their high
+ * bits using AND-NOT; (x AND (NOT y)) == 1 if x > y. If A_hi > B_hi, A > B.
+ * If A_hi == B_hi AND A_lo > B_lo, A > B. Otherwise, A <= B. It's really
+ * simple when drawn on paper, but quite messy on a general-purpose ALU. But
+ * look, just five instructions!
  */
-static INLINE uint32_t _mm32_cmpgt_epu2(uint32_t a, uint32_t b)
+static INLINE uint32_t u32vec_cmpgt_epu2(uint32_t a, uint32_t b)
 {
-  const uint32_t himask = 0xaaaaaaaa;
-
   uint32_t a_gt_b          = _andn_u32(b, a);
   uint32_t a_ne_b          = a ^ b;
   uint32_t a_gt_b_sh       = a_gt_b << 1;
   uint32_t lobit_tiebrk_hi = _andn_u32(a_ne_b, a_gt_b_sh);
-  uint32_t res             = (a_gt_b | lobit_tiebrk_hi) & himask;
+  uint32_t res             = a_gt_b | lobit_tiebrk_hi;
   return res;
 }
 
@@ -619,17 +626,17 @@ void kvz_encode_coeff_nxn_avx2(encoder_state_t * const state,
         base_levels &= c1flag_number_mask;
         base_levels |= (ones_base4 & c1flag_number_mask_inv);
 
-        uint32_t encode_decisions = _mm32_cmpgt_epu2(base_levels, abs_coeffs_base4);
+        uint32_t encode_decisions = u32vec_cmpgt_epu2(base_levels, abs_coeffs_base4);
 
         for (idx = 0; idx < num_non_zero; idx++) {
 
           uint32_t shamt = idx << 1;
-          uint32_t dont_encode_curr = (encode_decisions >> shamt) & 3;
+          uint32_t dont_encode_curr = (encode_decisions >> shamt);
           int16_t base_level        = (base_levels      >> shamt) & 3;
 
           uint16_t curr_abs_coeff = abs_coeff[idx];
 
-          if (!dont_encode_curr) {
+          if (!(dont_encode_curr & 2)) {
             uint16_t level_diff = curr_abs_coeff - base_level;
             if (!cabac->only_count && (encoder->cfg.crypto_features & KVZ_CRYPTO_TRANSF_COEFFS)) {
               kvz_cabac_write_coeff_remain_encry(state, cabac, level_diff, go_rice_param, base_level);