diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/virtio/virtgpu_submit.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/virtio/virtgpu_submit.c
index 734b1e976a75..3d35326dd904 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/virtio/virtgpu_submit.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/virtio/virtgpu_submit.c
@@ -389,10 +389,13 @@ static int virtio_gpu_init_submit(struct virtio_gpu_submit *submit,
 	if ((exbuf->flags & VIRTGPU_EXECBUF_FENCE_FD_OUT) ||
 	    exbuf->num_out_syncobjs ||
 	    exbuf->num_bo_handles ||
-	    drm_fence_event)
+	    drm_fence_event) {
 		out_fence = virtio_gpu_fence_alloc(vgdev, fence_ctx, ring_idx);
-	else
+		if (!out_fence)
+			return -ENOMEM;
+	} else {
 		out_fence = NULL;
+	}
 
 	if (drm_fence_event) {
 		err = virtio_gpu_fence_event_create(dev, file, out_fence, ring_idx);