2gb what the hell were you doing to use 2 gb. As for mine i was planning on turning it into a 15s animation. Just running it in the view panel would take about 1.5 hours, rendering would take weeks.
It wouldnt be that bad, it's slowed down because open GL cant handle that sort of stuff. When rendering the overhead is greatly reduced so it wouldnt be that bad. And if you bake the animation after your happy with the simulation then it will render a LOT quicker. It would also allow you to playback the scene. do some playblasts if you need to see it playing back in a GL preview 
Alan
Technical Director - Framestore
Currently working on: Your Highness
IMDB