Is there a way to increase resolution befor you start

[Promethias]

I have used the merge tool to drop cool looking objects into the scene only to find them look like a clump of clay?I then have to increase the resolution to 4x and they look good which is cool,but my question here is there wa away to start a object in 4x resolution or do i have to start a object like clay then up it to 4x ,erase the object and then place my object.This seems to work but if there is a way to drop the first step i wouldnt mind knowing how to. Also i have seen the cool video using the merge tool to put nice looking objects together into spaceships ect, I have 8 gigs of dd3 ram and 1 gig video card and my computer doesnt seem to handle nearly as fast as the one in the video. actually there is about a 4-5 second time frame to place the object in 4x resolution,Am i doing something wrong or is there a setting i should have turned on to try doing this?

Thankyou

[Promethias]

nevermind about the placing items it seems to be working good in 4x i might have been in 8x...but on that point what resolution where they using in the videos making the spaceship?

[Javis]

I'm guessing, but probably roughly 4-8x. Once you start getting any higher the performance takes a huge hit.

[philnolan3d]

Don't forget if you're merging objects in scaling them changes the resolution of the object. Larger scale = higher resolution, you can see an estimated poly count in the merge tool options panel, it changes while you change the scale.

[Promethias]

Thankyou i did notice at times i was making the item way to small and it came out like clay but when i enlarged the item it looked way better.