FreeSpace пасибо за совет, но такой код тоже пробовал, не работает, дохнет эдак на файлах между 2,5 и 2,8 когда как. Видимо у твоего локального сервера памяти побольше и пошустрее он.
Насколько я знаю, fpassthru и readfile вообще не должны использовать память скрипта - они сразу всё отдают в output.
When using readfile() -or fopen() and fpassthru() - make sure that if you are dealing with large files that are located on your server, use absolute paths and not URL\'s! Otherwise, the file will essentially be downloaded twice - the script will access the file from your web server itself, and then output it to the client, doubling the bandwidth. I made this mistake in a download script I made that included files on other servers, when the file was on mine, I forgot to use absolute paths. So, even for good practice if your files you\'re accessing are small, use absolute paths whenever possible. Seems obvious, but don\'t forget about it. - man...
и нитевидная закачка все равно не пашет