Will the Advanced Pixel Shader test run faster on graphics cards that support 1.4 pixel shaders?
The Advance Pixel Shader test is what we call a Feature Test, which means that we above all want to present some new technology. It was decided that a fall-back was to be included in addition to the 1.4 pixel shader, since a same looking effect can be achieved using pixel shader 1.1. These two different modes of that same test work a bit differently, and should therefore not be directly compared. Both two modes could be optimized to show more performance either way, but now the test is just optimized for maximum compatibility. Vertex shader performance also affects the score somewhat due to this compatibility optimization.
