dma_alloc_coherent (include/asm-x86/dma-mapping.h) avoids GFP_DMA
allocation first and if the allocated address is not fit for the
device's coherent_dma_mask, then dma_alloc_coherent does GFP_DMA
allocation. This is because dma_alloc_coherent avoids precious GFP_DMA
zone if possible. This is also how the old dma_alloc_coherent
(arch/x86/kernel/pci-dma.c) works.
However, if the coherent_dma_mask of a device is 24bit, there is no
point to go into the above GFP_DMA retry mechanism. We had better use
GFP_DMA in the first place.