Arrays, and for loops... faster to use together, or not to use?
Have a look at the compiler output.

The Loop option

The first alternative produce a preface (setting things) and the loop itself.

Preface

40201803:   21c9        s32i.n  a12, a1, 8
40201805:   3109        s32i.n  a0, a1, 12
40201807:   00a0c2          movi    a12, 0


loop

4020180a:   202cc0          or  a2, a12, a12
4020180d:   01ccc2          addi    a12, a12, 1
40201810:   ff8585          call0   4020106c &lt;delay&gt;
40201813:   f38c66          bnei    a12, 8, 4020180a &lt;_Z6XYtestv+0xa&gt;


The unfolded option

While the unfolded version is:

40201823:   020c        movi.n  a2, 0
40201825:   3109        s32i.n  a0, a1, 12
40201827:   ff8445          call0   4020106c &lt;delay&gt;
4020182a:   120c        movi.n  a2, 1
4020182c:   ff83c5          call0   4020106c &lt;delay&gt;
4020182f:   220c        movi.n  a2, 2
40201831:   ff8385          call0   4020106c &lt;delay&gt;
40201834:   320c        movi.n  a2, 3
40201836:   ff8345          call0   4020106c &lt;delay&gt;
40201839:   420c        movi.n  a2, 4
4020183b:   ff8305          call0   4020106c &lt;delay&gt;
4020183e:   520c        movi.n  a2, 5
40201840:   ff8285          call0   4020106c &lt;delay&gt;
40201843:   620c        movi.n  a2, 6
40201845:   ff8245          call0   4020106c &lt;delay&gt;
40201848:   720c        movi.n  a2, 7
4020184a:   ff8205          call0   4020106c &lt;delay&gt;


So, the loop execute 4 instructions per each array element, while the unfolded version had only 2 instructions per array element.

But you are trading speed for space and and risking an error while coding the same repetitive thing.

However, GCC (the 'Arduino' compiler) can unfold the loop by itself, so you still can write a loop but execute a sequence. Look at Tell gcc to specifically unroll a loop

Real numbers

I run a sketch (Arduino UNO) to time loop vs unfolded. The times for 1,000 execution of each method are:

loop:     6524us 
unfolded: 3808us


Quit a difference!

Sketch

int pause[8] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8};
typedef int (*fn)(void);

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  while(!Serial);
  Serial.println();

  Serial.print("Timing loop: ");
  Serial.print(time(met1));
  Serial.println(" us");

  Serial.print("Timing unfolded: ");
  Serial.print(time(met2));
  Serial.println(" us");
}

void loop() {

}

int time(fn f) {
  unsigned long start = micros();
  int x = 0;
  for (int i = 0; i &lt; 1000; i++) {
    x = f();
  }
  unsigned long dif = micros() - start;
  return dif;
}

int met1() {
  int sum = 0;
  for (int i=0; i &lt; 8; i++) {
    sum += pause[i];    
  }
  return sum;
}

int met2() {
  int sum = 0;
  sum += pause[0];
  sum += pause[1];
  sum += pause[2];
  sum += pause[3];
  sum += pause[4];
  sum += pause[5];
  sum += pause[6];
  sum += pause[7];
  return sum;
}