really depends on what you are sorting on. Also depends on what your backend is and whether you are using vba functions and whether you have queries which reference other sorted queries. Properly indexed, speed should not be an issue - the issue will be the number of records being returned. Criteria limits the number of records returned, sorting is based on the reduced recordset. Note if the final destination is a report, then the report will ignore sorting, so no point doing it in the recordsource.
For Access the backend is doing the work - but using your processor and memory. For something like sql server as a backend, the server is using it's own processor and memory
see you are down from your original 250,000 records/day here
https://www.accessforums.net/showthr...851#post463851
A single table does not sound right, but perhaps it is a simple list with only a few columns - perhaps down from the 20 text columns you mentioned before.