Particle display
 

Still making the transition from Max.

In Max, theres a display setting where you can have only a percentage of your particles displayed in the viewport to simplify playback, but everything will still render at 100%.

Can this be done in Maya?

Thanks.

anyone?

The only way I know if to select the Particle Object and set the Level of Detail from the Channel Box and set it to a smaller number. I suggest 0.25. This will accually reduce the number of particles in the final render as well, but all you have to do is set it back to 1.00 when it's time to render :)