It's a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. It ain't a game, it's a benchmark; of COURSE it's stinking synthetic! Just because nVidia chose badly in their GF3/GF4 DX8.1 specs doesn't give them any excuse to whine now, and it's just killing them in the wake of their horrible PR as of late. They sound like a bunch of whiners because they ARE a bunch of whiners right now. :)

They didn't put in the 1.4 shader "because they favor ATI", they put them in because the 1.4 shaders are a quantum leap better than the 1.3 shaders. There's a huge difference between 1.1, 1.2, & 1.3 and the 1.4 specs. It's nVidia's own fault for not supporting the 1.4 spec. :)