For a game to take advantage of a 3D accelerator, it requires a way for the software to get at the 3D accelerator's functionality. This junction is called an API (applications programming interface).

Choosing the right 3D accelerator is complicated by the widespread adoption of a proprietary API, 3Dfx's Glide. That made a lot of sense a couple of years ago. Direct3D was pretty pathetic, and OpenGL support wasn't yet widespread. Now, though, we're starting to see a waning of Glide-only games (most new titles that have Glide support will also support either Direct3D or OpenGL). Still, there are many existing Glide-only titles, and there are still a few key games showing up every day - Independence War, for example.

If you're buying a new system, the best gaming rig you can get is one with a fast AGP 2X board, like one of the RIVA TNT boards, and a Voodoo2 card. If you're really hard-core, you could always add a second Voodoo2 board for SLI, but that's excessive for most users.

If you're buying a new system and you already have a Voodoo board, there's probably no reason to upgrade to Voodoo2 . Get a TNT board instead. With multitexture support in both DirectX6 and OpenGL, as well as impressive 2D speed, TNT covers quite a few bases, and you can use the Voodoo board for Glide titles.

Banshee throws an interesting wrinkle into the equation. It's reasonably fast in Direct3D and OpenGL, but it's no replacement for Voodoo2. On the other hand, if you're on a fairly tight budget, Banshee looks pretty promising, although there seem to be a few early glitches with Glide - but no more so than Voodoo2 had when it shipped. Banshee also doesn't support single-pass multitexturing. On the upside, it is not a Voodoo Rush redux, since Banshee's 2D performance is quite good. So Banshee's a good budget solution: It offers Glide support. It's clear from our testing, though, that Banshee doesn't match the TNT boards' performance in real games. The Monster Fusion clocks at 125MHz, but still can't keep up with the slowest TNT board. About the only area that Banshee surpassed TNT was in the Motorhead torture test.