Enabling 3D? Empty tips?

[Mark Knecht]

Hello,
   I'm bringing up a new machine running XFCE and I've got a couple of
early questions. Thanks in advance.

1) This is very new hardware - an Intel DH55HC motherboard coupled
with an i5-661 processor. X is up and functional but I don't know how
to determine within XFCE whether I'm running in framer buffer mode (I
don't think I am) or whether I'm running native, and if native whether
I've enabled everthing I can to get the best graphics performance.
This is not a gaming machine VGA but I do want to get the most out of
it. What can I do to test?

2) A minor frustration is that every time I start I get the Tips box,
which is OK for now, but there are no tips. Is there something I need
to emerge to get those? (Distro is Gentoo.)

Thanks,
Mark