Appending "LIMIT" to query drastically decreases performance - Mailing list pgsql-performance

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Subject Appending "LIMIT" to query drastically decreases performance
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Msg-id fiordm$2aev$1@news.hub.org
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Responses Re: Appending "LIMIT" to query drastically decreases performance
List pgsql-performance
Can anyone explain the following odd behavior?
I have a query that completes in about 90 ms. If I append LIMIT to the
very end, eg. "LIMIT 500" the evaluation time increases to about 800 ms.
How can performance get *worse* by giving the database the option to
stop the evaluation earlier (when it reaches the output 500 rows)?

I have pasted both queries together with output from explain analyze here:
    http://pastebin.com/m3c0d1896

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