How to make a background?

I need the best(high performance) way to draw a background in a scene.
I started with glDrawPixels() - but redrawing full screen slowes down fps terribly.
I optimized and made partial redrawing(only those parts that need to be redrawn). Performance increased, but it is still low.

Now I am plannig to try textured quad to use as a background, is that the only way?

I am doing a tex quad as well, thinking that is the most common way to do it.

textured quad without depth testing and all not required stuff like lighting, blending, etc turned off will give you the best performance for a background