A single call to glDrawElements with GL_TRIANGLES should be the most optimal in the general case - have a read of http://home.comcast.net/~tom_forsyth/blog.wiki.html#Strippershttps://web.archive.org/web/20130328101248/http://home.comcast.net/~tom_forsyth/blog.wiki.html#Strippers - strips are basically obsolete and have been for over a decade.