"No, it doesn't. In fact, that's a distinct advantage of mod_php. Everything is loaded and in memory when the request comes in."

Actually, thats not right, even with APC. A large set of operations run at the start of every request. For example, the class- and function-tables are filled and copied. Each extension (library) also has a per-request callback.

I don't know anything about NGINX either. But he's not wrong about the "epic shit ton of overhead".