A network device includes a network interface, a host interface, and processing circuitry. The network interface is configured to connect to a communication network. The host interface is configured to connect to a host comprising a host processor running a client process. The processing circuitry is configured to receive packets belonging to a message having a message length, the message originating from a peer process, to identify, in at least some of the received packets, application-level information specifying the message length, to determine, based on the identified message length, that the packets of the message already received comprise only a portion of the message, and in response to determining that the client process benefits from receiving less than the entire message, to initiate reporting the packets of the message already received to the client process.