Prolly fastest overall to use quads to display your letters. What about creating a texture, say 256x32 or something, and drawing onto the texture with the text command. You'll only need to do this once, and you can apply this texture to another sprite.
Faster than the 2d drawing :o)
But, if you wanting to stick to the 2d, then creating a image, and drawing the text to the image, then drawing the image every frame will be quickest.
Faster than the 2d drawing :o)
But, if you wanting to stick to the 2d, then creating a image, and drawing the text to the image, then drawing the image every frame will be quickest.