Shift right isn't even relevant here - if you shift before conversion to float all your values end up 0 and if you want to divide afterwards its no longer a simple shift.
replyExactly. Although if you do >> 8 while working with uint8, it will be the fastest :)
replyIt's 3 cycles for float multiplication (and 1 for shift right):
reply3x faster
In throughput it's even less of a difference: 2 per cycle vs 3 per cycle.
50% faster