So if the expected result is for me to have a working gnome shell I
wonder if it might be something screwy with my install. I preupgraded
both of the boxes from F14 to F16 directly. Is there any way of finding
out why it would believe these cards can't support 3d acceleration?
~/.xsession-errors may offer useful clues.
Also see if other 3D stuff works when you login with the fallback Gnome