Too many polygons
 

Hello,
My problems is when I import an .obj it comes in as a polygon model of my objects. However the number of polygons is so large that it really slows down maya and can even freeze it up. I'm afraid of reducing the polygons because I want to keep the true shape of the objects, is there anything I can do?
(I also need to smooth, but I found averaging vertices does a good job and doesn't freeze up maya).

for work so heavy i`d recommend you to upgrade your ram and processor if thats the problem.....what pc spec you running maya on?

Windows 2000, 3.0 GHz processor with 512 meg ram and an 128 meg ATI FireGl 3d accelerator card