if i move the viewer window to a second monitor, and go full screen,
will the performance be degraded in any way?
No, it should be the exact same - unless that monitor is way bigger
than the main one obviously
how do tiger and quartzComposer deal with openGL capabilities when
displaying on a second monitor (or projector, for instance)? would
there be better performance on the single built-in display? or does it
simply not matter what screen the viewer is on (assuming no other
intensive graphics activity is occurring on the other monitor)?
That's right, it does not matter. The only important thing is to have
your main monitor and second monitor driven from the same video card.