In this paper we will look at the rendering performance of several Graphics Application Programming Interfaces (API’s) with a focus on geographic map rendering. A mixture of 2D and 3D engines will be benchmarked. We will focus on two aspects: Rendering speed of 2D geographic based data and the ease of implementing a rendering system based on each of the API’s. From this data we discern which API is best suited for building a c# open source Geographic Information System (GIS) rendering engine. The results of the implemented benchmarks are discussed in further detail and the best API for implementing a GIS rendering system is identified.