diff --git a/tools/patman/test_util.py b/tools/patman/test_util.py
index 7df2aec670..0f6d1aa902 100644
--- a/tools/patman/test_util.py
+++ b/tools/patman/test_util.py
@@ -208,14 +208,14 @@ def run_test_suites(toolname, debug, verbosity, test_preserve_dirs, processes,
     runner = unittest.TextTestRunner(
         stream=sys.stdout,
         verbosity=(1 if verbosity is None else verbosity),
-        buffer=buffer_outputs,
+        buffer=False if test_name else buffer_outputs,
         resultclass=FullTextTestResult,
     )
 
     if use_concurrent and processes != 1:
         suite = ConcurrentTestSuite(suite,
                 fork_for_tests(processes or multiprocessing.cpu_count(),
-                               buffer=buffer_outputs))
+                               buffer=False if test_name else buffer_outputs))
 
     for module in class_and_module_list:
         if isinstance(module, str) and (not test_name or test_name == module):