Simple question, will using surfacegui with a single textbox lag more than creating a decal with same text?
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I would presume so.
You’re implementing one object when using a Decal. In contrast to the SurraceGUI, Frame and Textbox objects.
Someone more familiar with objects can correct me if I’m wrong. 
SurfaceGuis will reach a point where they simply stop rendering when overused. They also have more overhead than Decals do. If you replaced every decal in a decal heavy game with a SurfaceGui, the game would suffer. Others have tried this.
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It’s an interesting question, so I took some time to investigate it in studio and I found this.
In my test, I used a decal that had a simple “A” on it, a surface gui with the letter A but using a textlabel, and a surface gui with the exact same decal image, but as an image label instead, and took samples from the performance tab on each. The results were taken at max settings on studio on a laptop. (i’ll likely back this up with more information later, and it could just be my device)
Decal ~ 1.69ms
Surface Gui - 1.67ms
Surface Gui With Text - 1.54ms
As the results suggest, Surface Guis take much less time when processed, particularly the Surface Gui with text, however the differences are quite literally microscopic. It would only have an effect if you had hundreds of thousands of decals. I would also think that Surface Guis are a little more efficient because you don’t have to render the suns surface on top, though this is really an assumption
Honestly, the choice is up to you. If you want signs that reflect the sun, go with a decal. If your bothered about the reflection and but you want to maintain your creative control, go with a Surface Gui/decal, and if you really aren’t bothered with the design and just wanna go with basic text, then use TextLabels!
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As @Mariofly5 said the difference between performance for surface Gui’s and decals is tiny and shouldn’t make much difference to your game. I would assume a surface gui would be better for performance if you use them in small amounts. I would however monitor your games performance closely as a decal could be a little bit better for performance rather than a surface gui in some situations.
Sometimes a decal could be easier to use than a surface gui and vise versa in some situations. Lets say you are just going to have text on a brick then I would use a surface gui as it would be a lot quicker to update/change, as you wont need to keep making a new image. Then if you are going to make a wall with a pattern I would use a decal or a texture in that situation.
Depending on the usage. You should use SurfaceGUIs for signage and other smaller things. I once used SurfaceGUIs for skyscrapers to make night-time glowing buildings because that’s one thing you can’t do with decals is light them up. When I replaced them with decals and cut the windows out to use the ROBLOX default material instead to light up the decal, I reduced the RAM usage with 40%.
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