Load ASCII matrix file Fastly?

Hi, Is it true that 'load' function doesn't allocate memory first? I want to load 942x2001 matrix file name malta1t_H.asc like this: A = load ('malta1t_H.asc'); then save it like a image... How can i do it very speedly loading?

Many thank's.

NOTE: My matrix look like this:

-4.8783859e+06 -6.7259831e+05 3.3227990e+06 5.8160757e+06 6.0633197e+06 6.1759717e+07 6.3331784e+07 6.0156115e+07 5.0740796e+07 3.5259073e+07 1.5552955e+07 -5.4352212e+06 -2.4558847e+07 -3.9350922e+07 -4.8589744e+07 -5.2382722e+07 -5.1796127e+07 -4.8225468e+07 -4.2782412e+07 -3.5943947e+07 -5.6978317e+06 -8.6798931e+06 -1.0116615e+07 -9.0411721e+06 -5.4428835e+06 -2.6371660e+05 4.9625961e+06 8.6825180e+06 9.8861409e+06 8.4528845e+06 5.1580206e+06 1.3488361e+06 -1.5776959e+06 -2.6937151e+06 -1.8612284e+06 2.5943171e+05 2.5066774e+06 3.6981965e+06 3.1065158e+06 7.4756303e+05 -2.4862950e+05...