The Max rows retrieved query property determines the maximum number of rows of data that are displayed when a query is run. If you only need a certain amount of data, you can set this value to limit the number of rows of data in your document.
Max rows retrieved does not operate at the database level. If you set Max rows retrieved to 1000, and your query returns 5000 rows, Web Intelligence initially retrieves all 5000 rows, before discarding 4000 and retaining only the first 1000 rows.
The Sample result set query property also applies a restriction on the number of rows in the query, but at the database level. If you set Max rows retrieved to 2000 and Sample result set to 1000, the query retrieves a maximum of 1000 rows only.
This setting can be overridden by the limits set by your administrator in your security profile. For example, if you set the Max rows retrieved setting to 400 rows, but your security profile limits you to 200 rows, only 200 rows of data will be retrieved when you run the query.