diff --git a/sklearn/decomposition/tests/test_incremental_pca.py b/sklearn/decomposition/tests/test_incremental_pca.py
index 87e7f9d768..7a10abd77e 100644
--- a/sklearn/decomposition/tests/test_incremental_pca.py
+++ b/sklearn/decomposition/tests/test_incremental_pca.py
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ def test_whitening():
     # Test that PCA and IncrementalPCA transforms match to sign flip.
     X = datasets.make_low_rank_matrix(1000, 10, tail_strength=0.,
                                       effective_rank=2, random_state=1999)
-    prec = 3
+    prec = 2
     n_samples, n_features = X.shape
     for nc in [None, 9]:
         pca = PCA(whiten=True, n_components=nc).fit(X)
