Large Lists

As lists become larger, they can reduce the ability of Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 to operate efficiently and perform well. For example, viewing more than 2,000 items at a time from a list will impact performance, as will list queries that touch more than 5,000 items in the SQL Server content database during execution (for more information, see Query Throttling and Indexing).

Performance will always benefit when you minimize the amount of list data retrieved, limiting it to only the data the user needs to perform his tasks. Generally it’s not realistic to display several thousand items at once, although in some situations it is reasonable to query many items, as you must when downloading data to a spreadsheet. Large lists are not necessarily bad, and when properly managed, SharePoint can handle millions of items of data in a single list. However, large lists require proactive developer and IT pro engagement to ensure that they work smoothly on your site. You may need to use large lists if you:

• Have organic growth that pushes list capacity.
• Have a high estimated list growth rate.
• Are migrating from a large document store.

For detailed information on dealing with large lists from an access perspective, see Designing Large Lists and Maximizing List Performance.