storing large files in database - performance

Hey,

I searched and found a few discussions of storing large files in the database in the archives, but none that specifically address performance and how large of files can realistically be stored in the database.

I have a node.js application using PostgreSQL to store uploaded files. The column in which I am storing the file contents is of type "bytea" with "Storage" type set to "EXTENDED". Storing a 12.5 MB file is taking 10 seconds, and storing a 25MB file is taking 37 seconds. Two notable things about those numbers: It seems like a long time, and the time seems to grow exponentially with file size rather than linearly.

Do these numbers surprise you? Are these files just too large for storage in PostgreSQL to be practical? Could there be something about my methodology that is slowing things down?

I do have the Sequelize ORM and the pg driver in between my code and the database.

Thanks,

Eric