Here is another reason why you might test before making a decision on which function to use by your previous experiences. In this scenerio there is large partitioned log table just having a primary jey on nlog_id column and we want to find the last N inserted rows.
Code Listing 20 : On TopN Analysis: Rownum – Row_Number – Rank
Testing Information : the scripts mentioned are tested on Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.2.0
Refences Used : On Top-n and Pagination Queries By Tom Kyte, Oracle Magazine Article