diff --git a/modules/imgproc/perf/perf_houghLines.cpp b/modules/imgproc/perf/perf_houghLines.cpp
index a6ab50e644..96575eca53 100644
--- a/modules/imgproc/perf/perf_houghLines.cpp
+++ b/modules/imgproc/perf/perf_houghLines.cpp
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ using namespace perf;
 using std::tr1::make_tuple;
 using std::tr1::get;
 
-typedef std::tr1::tuple<string, double, double, int> Image_RhoStep_ThetaStep_Threshold_t;
+typedef std::tr1::tuple<string, double, double, double> Image_RhoStep_ThetaStep_Threshold_t;
 typedef perf::TestBaseWithParam<Image_RhoStep_ThetaStep_Threshold_t> Image_RhoStep_ThetaStep_Threshold;
 
 PERF_TEST_P(Image_RhoStep_ThetaStep_Threshold, HoughLines,
@@ -16,30 +16,58 @@ PERF_TEST_P(Image_RhoStep_ThetaStep_Threshold, HoughLines,
                 testing::Values( "cv/shared/pic5.png", "stitching/a1.png" ),
                 testing::Values( 1, 10 ),
                 testing::Values( 0.01, 0.1 ),
-                testing::Values( 300, 500 )
+                testing::Values( 0.5, 1.1 )
                 )
             )
 {
     string filename = getDataPath(get<0>(GetParam()));
     double rhoStep = get<1>(GetParam());
     double thetaStep = get<2>(GetParam());
-    int threshold = get<3>(GetParam());
+    double threshold_ratio = get<3>(GetParam());
 
     Mat image = imread(filename, IMREAD_GRAYSCALE);
     if (image.empty())
         FAIL() << "Unable to load source image" << filename;
 
-    Canny(image, image, 0, 0);
+    Canny(image, image, 32, 128);
 
-    Mat lines;
+    // add some syntetic lines:
+    line(image, Point(0, 0), Point(image.cols, image.rows), Scalar::all(255), 3);
+    line(image, Point(image.cols, 0), Point(image.cols/2, image.rows), Scalar::all(255), 3);
+
+    vector<Vec2f> lines;
     declare.time(60);
 
+    int threshold = (int)(std::min(image.cols, image.rows) * threshold_ratio);
+
     TEST_CYCLE() HoughLines(image, lines, rhoStep, thetaStep, threshold);
 
-    transpose(lines, lines);
-#if (0 && defined(HAVE_IPP) && IPP_VERSION_X100 >= 810)
-    SANITY_CHECK_NOTHING();
-#else
-    SANITY_CHECK(lines);
+    printf("%dx%d: %d lines\n", image.cols, image.rows, (int)lines.size());
+
+    if (threshold_ratio < 1.0)
+    {
+        EXPECT_GE(lines.size(), 2u);
+    }
+
+    EXPECT_LT(lines.size(), 3000u);
+
+#if 0
+    cv::cvtColor(image,image,cv::COLOR_GRAY2BGR);
+    for( size_t i = 0; i < lines.size(); i++ )
+    {
+        float rho = lines[i][0], theta = lines[i][1];
+        Point pt1, pt2;
+        double a = cos(theta), b = sin(theta);
+        double x0 = a*rho, y0 = b*rho;
+        pt1.x = cvRound(x0 + 1000*(-b));
+        pt1.y = cvRound(y0 + 1000*(a));
+        pt2.x = cvRound(x0 - 1000*(-b));
+        pt2.y = cvRound(y0 - 1000*(a));
+        line(image, pt1, pt2, Scalar(0,0,255), 1, cv::LINE_AA);
+    }
+    cv::imshow("result", image);
+    cv::waitKey();
 #endif
+
+    SANITY_CHECK_NOTHING();
 }