performance of tight loop

[gry]

[python-2.4.3, rh CentOS release 5.5 linux, 24 xeon cpu's, 24GB ram]
I have a little data generator that I'd like to go faster... any
suggestions?
maxint is usually 9223372036854775808(max 64bit int), but could
occasionally be 99.
width is usually 500 or 1600, rows ~ 5000.

from random import randint

def row(i, wd, mx):
    first = ['%d' % i]
    rest =  ['%d' % randint(1, mx) for i in range(wd - 1)]
    return first + rest
...
    while True:
        print "copy %s from stdin direct delimiter ',';" % table_name
        for i in range(i,i+rows):
            print ','.join(row(i, width, maxint))
        print '\.'