RasterOps 8/24 XLi NuBus video card too slow

[Classicman]

Hi everyone!

I recovered, through a friend of mine, a RasterOps 8/24 XLi NuBus video card with ROM version 1.41.
I immediately tested it on my Quadra 950 and I noticed a huge difference in terms of speed compared to my Radius PrecisionColor Pro 24X.
Is it possible it's that slow?!? especially when working with thousands or millions of colors...
Without doing specific tests (I'm not an expert), it can already be seen from the graphic processing of the windows performed by the finder that it is "twitchy/laggy" and not fluid.
Besides the speed issue, I found that it has too high a basic "gamma" (excessive brightness) in fact I had to set the "gamma" of my EIZO LCD monitor to its darkest setting and I also did the same thing with the control panel Adobe's "gamma" control.
Now I have achieved a fairly acceptable video result but in any case in my opinion there is something defective... very strange...
Even its 1024 x 768 resolution appears to me to be slightly "restricted", in fact I have two very thin black bands on the left and right of the screen (I tried to solve the problem with the control of RasterOps "screenshift" centering the image, but as I was saying I am left with these two bands thin black ones).

I would love to hear your comments about this video card and if any of you had the same problems.
Thank you all in advance!

 

[Byrd]

This card is known to not be a stellar performers, it got you over the line if you needed millions of colours but not with much acceleration. Try another LCD and sync it again

 

[Classicman]

I’m sorry for the delay of my response.
Thanks a lot for your precise reply @Byrd !!!
You confirmed what I could see.

 

[beachycove]

I think the RasterOps card did well on Photoshop filters and the like, which is what mattered in segments of the graphics industry — this being the primary market for all of these very expensive graphics cards back in the day. I don’t know that anyone was especially interested in frame rates, though scrolling and pan and zoom might be somewhat related. I haven’t played much with the one I’ve got here, but one of these days I’ll have to give it a sustained whirl in order to try to understand it better.

As for speed, I’d personally want to test the card under a variety of System software versions to be certain of the results, and to see how it improved matters in a IIci or the like over against the period competition to make a fully informed assessment of the merits of the thing. It’s not an 040-era card as far as I recall. It must have had a niche use.

One of the key features of the 8/24XLI, for instance, is the expandable on-board RAM (standard 30-pin SIMMs). I’d like to know more about that — why was it there and what did it really enable the card to do? G-worlds? RAM disk? Anything else?

To cost what it did (as much as a computer), the thing must have done something well, even if it is to our eyes a disappointment.