While I have a pretty good list of all the Managed DirectX Engines out there I am often asked which is the best which is something I don't have an answer for. Comparing each and every one would take a lot more time that I have right now.

So its nice to see that someone else has done a small evaluation that included Irrlicht, HADDD, custom native engine and custom MDX engine. He also included some comparisons with OpenGL versions. The evaluations not only include the speed that the demo ran at, but how long it takes to develop and debug the code.

His conclusions:

OpenGL wins on nVidia, DirectX wins on ATi. Managed DirectX is negligibly (i was pushing a LOT of pixels) slower than Raw DirectX. Engines are slower than working directly with the APIs. C# saves you dev time without sacrificing immense amounts of performance.
And Irrlicht is awesome if you decide you need multiple versions.

Not sure who you are cael (drop me an email and let me know what you are up to) but thanks.