[fw-mvc] Image resizing performance question

Hi,

Performance wise which solution is better for resizing + caching + serving images
All image requests are handled via...
1. Controller + action
2. Dedicated php script outside of the mvc (using htaccess to redirect relevant requests)

I serve images in three sizes small, medium and large and the url for the images look like
1. Small = domain.com/images/s/news-x.xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx.jpg
2. Medium = domain.com/images/m/news-x.xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx.jpg
etc.

All images are stored in the "data/uploads/" folder outside of the public_html folder
I look forward to your suggestions.

Why is performance important?
Cause I am on a shared host with limited server resources :)

Also, if possible could someone share how they handle image serving through a script/mvc

-R

P.S. Some pages have requests to around 30+ images (thumbnails).