Derik Hammer has a post on tuning SQL Server backups:
Finally, do not forget about your memory. To backup or restore a database you have to load data pages into memory. We will talk more about memory below and how the internal buffer pool comes into play and can cause operating system paging or out of memory conditions.
Derik shows the various knobs and switches available, and I want to emphasize one thing: optimizing backup statements involves testing different scenarios. You can make good guesses as to the appropriate MAX_TRANSFER_SIZE or BUFFERCOUNT, but even then, test different combinations and find what works best for each database.