Are you talking about the blue checker box vs the pink checker box in the material editor?
The pink checker box (hardware) lets you display shaders and a few real time maps like normal maps in the viewport, they react to the lighting more or less. It is dependent on your video card, directX and viewport configuration settings to work. It's good for working on things like normal maps and shaders. But isn't really a good substitute for viewing your creation in the engine it's going to.
The blue checker box (standard) doesn't require all that processing power but won't display the advanced maps and shaders.This is good for viewing diffuse color maps.
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The pink checker box (hardware) lets you display shaders and a few real time maps like normal maps in the viewport, they react to the lighting more or less. It is dependent on your video card, directX and viewport configuration settings to work. It's good for working on things like normal maps and shaders. But isn't really a good substitute for viewing your creation in the engine it's going to.
The blue checker box (standard) doesn't require all that processing power but won't display the advanced maps and shaders.This is good for viewing diffuse color maps.