I've always found D3D faster too. I also think the extensions are a pain, often added as an afterthought causing all kinds of compatibility problems on high end hardware.
D3D is nice in that it usualy gets the new features first, and GL gets hardware ventor supported extensions in order to play catchup.
Most high end 3D apps started using D3D now since they have better support for shaders and fancy shaderd with better compatiblity over a broad range of hardware.
GL used to be faster than D3D 2-3 years ago in 3D apps, but now theres not much difference except for you cant use shaders in GL with many apps. Whilst D3D renderer usualy have direct support for HLSL .FX shaders in viewports.
D3D is nice in that it usualy gets the new features first, and GL gets hardware ventor supported extensions in order to play catchup.
Most high end 3D apps started using D3D now since they have better support for shaders and fancy shaderd with better compatiblity over a broad range of hardware.
GL used to be faster than D3D 2-3 years ago in 3D apps, but now theres not much difference except for you cant use shaders in GL with many apps. Whilst D3D renderer usualy have direct support for HLSL .FX shaders in viewports.