Further info on table size: Query Result Set = 197,188 rows Table Size: 18,272,128 Rows 5958.75MB (~6GB) 23835 Extents Returning 10.791% of the table. Chris -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christopher.Taylor2@xxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 1:15 PM To: jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: Need some 10053 Guidance to help me solve a puzzler 1.) Quote: -- Okay, bit of a coincidence on the costing, then, but -- what's the block size -- what do the system stats look like db_block_size=8192 system stats: SYSSTATS_MAIN CPUSPEEDNW 1878.73888439774 SYSSTATS_MAIN IOSEEKTIM 10 SYSSTATS_MAIN IOTFRSPEED 4096 SYSSTATS_MAIN SREADTIM 1.562 SYSSTATS_MAIN MREADTIM 26.342 SYSSTATS_MAIN CPUSPEED 3003 SYSSTATS_MAIN MBRC 871 SYSSTATS_MAIN MAXTHR 287382528 SYSSTATS_MAIN SLAVETHR 29696 (see anything here that bears on this issue?) 2.) Quote: --should have been more like "the bit of the table needed by the indexed access path is nearly completely cached" Okay that would make sense. 3.) Quote: -- Oracle thinks that the data you want is all over the place and will require a very large number of random reads -- it's possible that the data you want is actually all packed into a fairly small part of the table That also makes sense. 4.) Quote: -- How big is the table really, how big is the cache. My comment was that the table was largely UNcached. Table Size: 5958.75MB (~6GB) 23835 Extents Cache: Buffer Cache: 24,832 MB (~24GB) 5.) Quote -- There's a very good book about this called "Cost Based Oracle - Fundamentals" (I wrote it, so I am biased, though). I have your book :-p (Reading about something is a lot different than getting to get your hands onto it and really understanding it!) Chris -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l