Well, there's another suggestion - if it's not suggested or improved (I'm sticking to 2.62 yet)...
Currently, the antialiasing of characters messes with whole character. Can it be done with outlines only, i mean anitaliasing the last pixel(s) before transparent color? Nowadays, 3D games do that... :-\
+ Amount of anti-aliasing process reduces, which may save some CPU
+ It looks better in many games
- Probably more difficult to do
This has been requested before -- basically, working out where the edges of the sprite were would take far more CPU than the current antialiasing operation, and would cause too much of a slowdown.