diff --git a/koch.nim b/koch.nim
index fa498e0179..52378e43fb 100644
--- a/koch.nim
+++ b/koch.nim
@@ -530,8 +530,7 @@ proc runCI(cmd: string) =
   # boot without -d:nimHasLibFFI to make sure this still works
   # `--lib:lib` is needed for bootstrap on openbsd, for reasons described in
   # https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/pull/14291 (`getAppFilename` bugsfor older nim on openbsd).
-  kochExecFold("Boot in release mode", "boot -d:release --gc:refc -d:nimStrictMode --lib:lib")
-  kochExecFold("Boot Nim ORC", "boot -d:release --lib:lib")
+  kochExecFold("Boot Nim ORC", "boot -d:release -d:nimStrictMode --lib:lib")
 
   when false: # debugging: when you need to run only 1 test in CI, use something like this:
     execFold("debugging test", "nim r tests/stdlib/tosproc.nim")
@@ -587,6 +586,9 @@ proc runCI(cmd: string) =
 
     execFold("Run atlas tests", "nim c -r -d:atlasTests tools/atlas/atlas.nim clone https://github.com/disruptek/balls")
 
+    kochExecFold("Testing booting in refc", "boot -d:release --mm:refc -d:nimStrictMode --lib:lib")
+
+
 proc testUnixInstall(cmdLineRest: string) =
   csource("-d:danger" & cmdLineRest)
   xz(false, cmdLineRest)