diff --git a/bitsandbytes/backends/xpu/ops.py b/bitsandbytes/backends/xpu/ops.py
index 999116c97..88f448bcd 100755
--- a/bitsandbytes/backends/xpu/ops.py
+++ b/bitsandbytes/backends/xpu/ops.py
@@ -1,14 +1,16 @@
 from collections.abc import Sequence
 import warnings
 
+from packaging import version
 import torch
 
 from ..._ops import register_kernel
 from ..utils import ipex_xpu, triton_available
 
-# _int_mm is available in torch starting from 2.7 version,
-# but currently it's don't have xpu implementation.
-if ipex_xpu and torch.__version__ >= (2, 7):
+# _int_mm is available in torch starting from 2.9 version, or ipex 2.7
+if version.parse(torch.__version__).release >= version.parse("2.9").release or (
+    ipex_xpu and torch.__version__ >= (2, 7)
+):
 
     @register_kernel("bitsandbytes::int8_linear_matmul", "xpu")
     def _(A: torch.Tensor, B: torch.Tensor):
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index d26832e4f..6626d1fa8 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -43,7 +43,8 @@ classifiers = [
 ]
 dependencies = [
     "torch>=2.2,<3",
-    "numpy>=1.17"
+    "numpy>=1.17",
+    "packaging>=20.9"
 ]
 
 [project.urls]