how many posts does it take before any given query always gives "database timed out"?

touhou order:score randomly decided to start giving me "database timed out" so i think that particular tag combo finally reached that threshold.

i remember seeing a thread that had an exact number of posts but i can't remember for the life of me what that number was, nor the forum search i did to get that thread. probably should've faved it...

Going by help:users I would assume it's based on the hardware (how many posts the server can process in your given allotment of time). For instance my timeout threshold (being a Gold member) is double yours at 6 seconds, and that search returns fine for me.

Unless you closed it without reading, you may notice the current site header: "Mar 09: New server again, site may experience slowness for next 1-2 days"

How long a particular query takes isn't determined just by how many posts it has, there are many different factors. For example, just touhou has the exact same number of posts as touhou order:score, but is 20x faster. It's not possible to give a set number of posts that will suddenly make a query time out.