diff --git a/exir/backend/canonical_partitioners/group_partitioner.py b/exir/backend/canonical_partitioners/group_partitioner.py
index 9aaeacd9d0a..63bedad3b42 100644
--- a/exir/backend/canonical_partitioners/group_partitioner.py
+++ b/exir/backend/canonical_partitioners/group_partitioner.py
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ def __init__(
         )
         self.node_to_group = collections.defaultdict(int)
         self.all_nodes_in_groups = set()
-        if node_groups:
+        if self.node_groups:
             for i, group in enumerate(self.node_groups):
                 for node in group:
                     # Node is in multiple groups - not allowed
@@ -101,19 +101,25 @@ def _can_merge_partitions(self, p1, p2, partitions_by_id):
         p2_nodes = set(partitions_by_id[p2].nodes.keys())
         combined_nodes = p1_nodes.union(p2_nodes)
 
-        for node in combined_nodes:
-            # Get all downstream nodes that are not in the combined partition
-            external_downstreams = {
-                n
-                for n in self.dependency_viewer.downstreams_of(node)
-                if n not in combined_nodes
-            }
+        user_nodes = []
+        # topologically, p2_nodes comes before p1_nodes, so we only
+        # need to check the downstream nodes of p2.
+        # Additionally, we don't need to check all the downstream nodes
+        # of p2, we only need to check the nodes directly outside of p2.
+        # example:
+        # partition[a -->  b --> c] --> d --> e --> f
+        # we don't need to check [d, e, f] we only need to check [d] because
+        # the downstream users of [d] will include [e, f]
+        for node in p2_nodes:
+            for user in node.users:
+                if user not in combined_nodes:
+                    user_nodes.append(user)
 
+        for external_node in user_nodes:
             # Check if any external downstream nodes have downstream nodes in the combined partition
-            for external_node in external_downstreams:
-                downstream_nodes = self.dependency_viewer.downstreams_of(external_node)
-                if any(n in combined_nodes for n in downstream_nodes):
-                    return False
+            downstream_nodes = self.dependency_viewer.downstreams_of(external_node)
+            if any(n in combined_nodes for n in downstream_nodes):
+                return False
 
         return True
 
@@ -133,13 +139,30 @@ def _process_node_groups(
         if not self.node_groups:
             return group_to_partition_id
 
-        for i, group in enumerate(self.node_groups):
-            # Create a partition for each group
+        processed_nodes = set()
+
+        # We have to create the partitions in reverse topological order
+        # so we find the groups as we traverse backwards in the graph
+        # this likely needs to be combined with the process_remaining_nodes
+        # TODO: this currently doesn't work with _process_remaining_nodes so
+        # if a user provides grouped nodes with operatorsupport, then this will
+        # faile
+        for node in reversed(self.graph_module.graph.nodes):
+            if node not in self.node_to_group:
+                continue
+
+            if node in processed_nodes:
+                continue
+
+            group_idx = self.node_to_group[node]
+            group = self.node_groups[group_idx]
+
+            # Create a partition for group
             partition_id = next(new_partition_id)
             partition = Partition(id=partition_id, nodes=set())
             partitions_by_id[partition_id] = partition
             partitions_order[partition_id] = partition_id
-            group_to_partition_id[i] = partition_id
+            group_to_partition_id[group_idx] = partition_id
 
             # Add all supported nodes from the group to the partition
             for node in group:
@@ -164,6 +187,12 @@ def _process_node_groups(
                         partition_map[partition_id].add(target_id)
                         partition_map[partition_id].update(partition_map[target_id])
 
+            # all the nodes in the group have now been processed
+            # so skip if we encoutner them again in our rev topo
+            # iteration
+            for node in group:
+                processed_nodes.add(node)
+
         return group_to_partition_id
 
     def _process_remaining_nodes(
@@ -209,7 +238,6 @@ def _merge_partitions(
 
         # Set to track removed partitions from initial static list so we can skip them
         already_merged = set()
-
         # Try to merge each pair of partitions
         for i, p1 in enumerate(partition_ids):
             # Skip if this partition has been already merged