using css to display an image

How to make it load faster?

[cynikalsam]

I started using CSS for the top banner of my site, and now it's the last image to load on the page.

Is there any way to make it load before any other image?

HTML;

<a class="banner" href="http://www.example.com/"></a>

CSS;

.banner {
  background: #000000 url(http://www.example.com/banner.png);
  height: 150px;
  width: 717px;
  border: 0px;
  display: block;
}

[faltered]

Depending on what the banner image includes, you could try saving it as a GIF, as long as you don't lose quality. That cut my banner size down by more than half.

[cynikalsam]

Its not the size of the image (it's actually pretty small) it's the fact that it loads after all the other (somtimes larger) images.

I don't need it to load faster, i need it to load first.