I don't own 3D Studio Max , so i can't experiment with objects, export or polygon count ...

The above info from ShawnDriscoll sounds reasonable ...

A little experiment i was able to do:
I've used a snow truck model, i've build in Silo 3D and exported it in OBJ and in 3DS format.
Then i loaded this model into Vue 5 Infinite, Vue 6 Infinite, Vue 8 Infinte and C4D demo.

The results in polygon count:

Object in Silo 3D modeler:
108953 polygons

in Vue 5 Infinite:
108935 - 3DS
86919 - OBJ

in Vue 6 Infinite:
108935 - 3DS
108947 - OBJ

in Vue 8 Infinite:
108935 - 3DS
108947 - OBJ

in Cinema4D R11.5 demo:
108934 - 3DS
55853 - OBJ

I can't tell you exactly, why Vue 5 loads the OBJ format with a smaller polygon count, but my guessing is, that it does an automatic decimation by itself, without asking the user, if it's even wanted. All the following versions of Vue like 6, 7 and now 8 show an extra little object import options window, where the user can decide, if centering, resizing or if decimation is wanted already at loading the object. But why the decimation is only done in Vue 5 with the OBJ objects, that's beyond my knowledge ...