Is the row-by-row processing done in a cursor? Must you update exactly one
row at a time (if so, why?) or would it be acceptable to update 2,3 or 50
rows at a time?

You can use SET ROWCOUNT and a loop to fine-tune the batch size of rows to
be updated. Bigger batches should improve performance over updating single
rows.

SET ROWCOUNT 50

WHILE 1=1
BEGIN

UPDATE SomeTable
SET ...
WHERE /* row not already updated */

IF @@ROWCOUNT=0
BREAK

END

SET ROWCOUNT 0

--
David Portas
SQL Server MVP
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