Different from the other game titles we tested Descent offers 3 different API's to choose from (DX6, OpenGL, and Glide). I thought comparing each of the various video boards performance across these different API's, where compatible, would be quite interesting. However, excluding the TNT2 both the G400MAX and Voodoo3 3500 wouldn't run in some of the API modes Descent had to offer. The G400 wouldn't run when I selected OpenGL mode in Descent and the Voodoo3 would run through the demo when DX6 or OpenGL modes were selected. At this time I can not point the finger at these two particular video boards until I make sure its not the implementation used by Descent 3. In any case, I provided the results (if there were any) using each of the supported API's. The last chart shows each of the video boards performance using their respective best performing API.

3D Game Benchmark Results - DirectX

Using the DX6 API the TNT2 enjoys a huge lead while running at 640x480x16 and 1024x768x16 resolution. The G400 pulls ahead by 3 FPS at 1600x1200x16.

3D Game Benchmark Results - OpenGL

Not much to talk about here! For some strange reason the G400MAX was able to run at 640x480x16 but none of the other resolutions. Let's hope something is broken with Descent implementation of OpenGL given the G400MAX's horrible 640x480x16 score!