Drawing the same mesh multiple times would not give you a speed boost. In fact it would be the same as creating one mesh, then using copyentity on in it many times.
The best way to get a speed boost is to limit the no. of times that OpenGL draws something - so instead of making it draw a mesh 150 times, if you can try and group some of the meshes together somehow, and get it to draw less times you will get a speed boost.
Meshes for smoke sounds excessive though, I don't think you even get that in AAA games! My advice for a super-fast particle system would be to look into using a single-surface sprite system, there is quite a bit of discussion about these for Blitz3D.
The best way to get a speed boost is to limit the no. of times that OpenGL draws something - so instead of making it draw a mesh 150 times, if you can try and group some of the meshes together somehow, and get it to draw less times you will get a speed boost.
Meshes for smoke sounds excessive though, I don't think you even get that in AAA games! My advice for a super-fast particle system would be to look into using a single-surface sprite system, there is quite a bit of discussion about these for Blitz3D.