Polygon-based computer-generated holography algorithms can achieve high realism at low computational cost. Many recent contributions improve the hologram generation efficiency and solve many issues of 3D realistic rendering. This manuscript provides a comprehensive evaluation of their performance and potential through a detailed classification and comparison. Although the numerical-based algorithms using spectral interpolation offer greater flexibility in achieving realistic 3D displays, further phase-optimization algorithms are needed to render 3D reconstructions with higher definition, reduced noise, and faster updates.