By the time setNodeValue() gets its hands on the removed object, the removeChild() function has already called removed->ref.deref(), which performs an acquire fence if the ref-count drops to zero. IOW: if removed->ref == 0 now, then an acquire fence has been executed. If ref != 0, then we're not reaching into removed, so we need no acquire. Therefore, a relaxed load suffices (as opposed to the loadAcquire() the implicit conversion operator performs). Found by disabling QAtomic<T> -> T implicit conversions. Change-Id: I367754fde0ad82db797161b5e94e2ebc08a90c0b Reviewed-by: Thiago Macieira <thiago.macieira@intel.com>