That depends entirely on the pitch that the sample is currently in and the pitch you want it to be. The bigger the difference between the two, the more artifacts (crappy sound) you're going to hear. That's not just digital that's physics of sound. Not much you can do, although some programs are better than others.
I know when I used Adobe Audition, it had a pitch-shift FX where you could change the pitch without changing the tempo. I think it did a pretty good job, but even it produced some artifacts for small changes.
What kind of sound are you trying to change? Some sounds will do better than others.
If you want to tune vocals or something then maybe look into an AutoTune like Antares AutoTune or the Melodyne software.
