http://sqlserver.ro/blogs/cristians_blog/archive/2008/01/09/sqlclr-large-objects-stream-them-if-you-have-this-option.aspxIn a discussion with Remus Rusanu , he reminded me that if you use a SqlString to pass a varchar(max) to a client application, the whole value is copied into the memory (think big - a varchar(max) can have up to 2GB). The alternative is to use streamingenCommunityServer 2.1 SP2 (Build: 61129.1)