diff a/src/hotspot/share/gc/shared/workgroup.cpp b/src/hotspot/share/gc/shared/workgroup.cpp
--- a/src/hotspot/share/gc/shared/workgroup.cpp
+++ b/src/hotspot/share/gc/shared/workgroup.cpp
@@ -38,14 +38,10 @@
 // The current implementation will exit if the allocation
 // of any worker fails.
 void  AbstractWorkGang::initialize_workers() {
   log_develop_trace(gc, workgang)("Constructing work gang %s with %u threads", name(), total_workers());
   _workers = NEW_C_HEAP_ARRAY(AbstractGangWorker*, total_workers(), mtInternal);
-  if (_workers == NULL) {
-    vm_exit_out_of_memory(0, OOM_MALLOC_ERROR, "Cannot create GangWorker array.");
-  }
-
   add_workers(true);
 }
 
 
 AbstractGangWorker* AbstractWorkGang::install_worker(uint worker_id) {
@@ -407,11 +403,10 @@
 // SubTasksDone functions.
 
 SubTasksDone::SubTasksDone(uint n) :
   _tasks(NULL), _n_tasks(n), _threads_completed(0) {
   _tasks = NEW_C_HEAP_ARRAY(uint, n, mtInternal);
-  guarantee(_tasks != NULL, "alloc failure");
   clear();
 }
 
 bool SubTasksDone::valid() {
   return _tasks != NULL;