Using an appropriate `-m' option to generate specific code for your CPU may be worthwhile, though it may mean the executable won't run on other versions of the CPU that don't support the same instruction set. See section `Hardware Models and Configurations' in Using and Porting GNU CC.
For recent CPUs that don't have explicit support in
the released version of gcc, it may still be possible to get
improvements.
For instance, the flags recommended for 586/686
(Pentium(Pro)) chips for building the Linux kernel are:
-m486 -malign-loops=2 -malign-jumps=2 -malign-functions=2 -fomit-frame-pointer
`-fomit-frame-pointer' will, however, inhibit debugging on x86 systems.
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