Thanks for the correction- it sounds like this is one where usage can't be precisely controlled in a dynamic user environment & I just need to get a feel for what works under a load that approximates my production system.
I think the most important point here is that if you set sort_mem too high, and you have a lot of simultaneous sorts, you can drive the server into swapping, which obviously is a very bad thing. You want it set as high as possible, but not so high given your usage patterns that you wind up swapping.
Joe
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