diff --git a/src/hotspot/share/gc/parallel/psCardTable.cpp b/src/hotspot/share/gc/parallel/psCardTable.cpp
index fcd0dd67a45..6429766309a 100644
--- a/src/hotspot/share/gc/parallel/psCardTable.cpp
+++ b/src/hotspot/share/gc/parallel/psCardTable.cpp
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ void PSCardTable::scan_obj_with_limit(PSPromotionManager* pm,
 }
 
 void PSCardTable::pre_scavenge(uint active_workers) {
-  _preprocessing_active_workers = active_workers;
+  _preprocessing_active_workers.store_relaxed(active_workers);
 }
 
 // The "shadow" table is a copy of the card table entries of the current stripe.
@@ -382,9 +382,9 @@ void PSCardTable::scavenge_contents_parallel(ObjectStartArray* start_array,
   preprocess_card_table_parallel(object_start, old_gen_bottom, old_gen_top, stripe_index, n_stripes);
 
   // Sync with other workers.
-  AtomicAccess::dec(&_preprocessing_active_workers);
+  _preprocessing_active_workers.sub_then_fetch(1);
   SpinYield spin_yield;
-  while (AtomicAccess::load_acquire(&_preprocessing_active_workers) > 0) {
+  while (_preprocessing_active_workers.load_acquire() > 0) {
     spin_yield.wait();
   }
 
diff --git a/src/hotspot/share/gc/parallel/psCardTable.hpp b/src/hotspot/share/gc/parallel/psCardTable.hpp
index 70c32d23b7f..033933bcbf1 100644
--- a/src/hotspot/share/gc/parallel/psCardTable.hpp
+++ b/src/hotspot/share/gc/parallel/psCardTable.hpp
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2001, 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2001, 2026, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
  * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
  *
  * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 
 #include "gc/shared/cardTable.hpp"
 #include "oops/oop.hpp"
+#include "runtime/atomic.hpp"
 
 class MutableSpace;
 class ObjectStartArray;
@@ -37,7 +38,7 @@ class PSCardTable: public CardTable {
   static constexpr size_t num_cards_in_stripe = 128;
   static_assert(num_cards_in_stripe >= 1, "progress");
 
-  volatile int _preprocessing_active_workers;
+  Atomic<int> _preprocessing_active_workers;
 
   bool is_dirty(CardValue* card) {
     return !is_clean(card);