[eluser]mdvaldosta[/eluser]
I doubt theirs a measurable difference, but if anything <?php would be faster because it doesn't have to get converted from short tags. I think you're splitting hairs with that kind of optimization. Having said that though, I always use the full <?php ?> tags as a habit because not all server settings allow short tags and if you used CI's function to convert those there would most definitely be a very small overhead with doing that.
