diff --git a/tests/deepsparse/pipelines/test_pipeline.py b/tests/deepsparse/pipelines/test_pipeline.py
index 958f0ec62f..945959c679 100644
--- a/tests/deepsparse/pipelines/test_pipeline.py
+++ b/tests/deepsparse/pipelines/test_pipeline.py
@@ -16,8 +16,6 @@
 from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
 from unittest import mock
 
-import numpy
-
 import flaky
 import pytest
 from deepsparse.base_pipeline import BasePipeline
@@ -159,5 +157,6 @@ def sleep_then_engine_forward(xs, context):
         dur_2_worker = (end - start) * 1e3
 
         # instead of doing a hard comparison of timing for each separate
-        # duration, do relative comparison of timing
-        assert numpy.allclose(dur_1_worker / dur_2_worker, 2, atol=0.4)
+        # duration, do relative comparison of timing where it should be
+        # at least 1.5x faster
+        assert (dur_1_worker / dur_2_worker) >= 1.5