I don't know about SSIS, but DTS allowed you to set a batch size. I used to do this for large imports and it seemed to process faster and hang up less. For instance, importing 5,000,000 rows, I might set the batch at 50,000 rows. Then it would not try to do the entire import in one transaction. Easier on RAM and T-log.
P.S. Why is this in the "Backups" forum ?