Colorful iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V Review

Today we’ll take an in-depth look at Colorful’s iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V and is the first product from Colorful that we have reviewed here at Overclockers.com. Colorful isn’t a new company, but being based in China, we don’t see many of their retail chains’ products. Don’t let that fool you. They’re one of the leading graphics card distributors in the world.

Colorful was established in 1995. By 2003 they became Nvidia’s largest partner in China and took the largest share of video card sales. They have continued to expand and today offer a full range of PC products such as motherboards and SSDs and full PCs and industrial servers.

First impressions of the 3060 Ti Vulcan are, for lack of a better term, “over the top.” Colorful hasn’t skimped anywhere with this card. The overall presentation, from packaging to the accessories, is quite impressive. Let’s see if this iGame 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V performs as well as it looks.

Colorful iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V

The RTX 3060 Ti is a cut-down version of Ampere using the GA104-200-A1 die. This new GPU consists of 4864 CUDA cores, just under half of what is found in the RTX 3090. We also have 8 GB of Samsung GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus yielding 448 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 3060 Ti doesn’t need all the power that the RTX 3090 does, but this sample from Colorful uses the same 3 x 8-pin PCIe connectors. This allows for 525 W of total power available, which is more than enough for this 240 W TDP card.

Colorful’s line-up for the RTX 3060 Ti consists of four different SKUs, three under iGame and one additional card under the Colorful name. The iGame Vulcan we have in our hands is at the top of the stack. Moving down, we have the iGame Ultra (also available in white), the iGame advanced, and finishing off the stack is the Colorful BattleAX, which is the only card with a 200 W TDP.

Colorful doesn’t skimp with their flagship model either – First, it’s the biggest card of the bunch, with a 3-slot cooler measuring 323 x 128 x 60 mm and weighing in at a hefty 1.7 kg (3.7 lbs). This card also comes with the iGame LCD status monitor 3.0 mounted to the outside edge of the cooler.

The LCD screen is 480 x 128 pixels and can be rotated 90° to accommodate vertical and horizontal installations. The screen is controlled via the iGame software which allows you to select two options to display such as GPU or CPU speed, temperature, and load, as well as system time or VRAM usage. The LCD screen can also be personalized with your own images uploaded via the USB Type-C port located on the end of the card. Next to this USB connector, we also have an RGB LED header, which, with the included cable, will allow you to sync your new iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan with your motherboard lighting and control software.

The heatsink has five 8 mm heat pipes running the entire length of the cooler. These pipes are attached to a vapor chamber that is filled with a liquid and copper powder for improved heat transfer. The cooler is also equipped with three 90 mm “Storm Chaser” fans with a unique 13-blade design featuring upturned angled edges for improved air movement. Another unique part of the fans is the central hub, which remains stationary while the fans are spinning, allowing you to read the iGame logo without the dizzying effects.

We previously mentioned the 3 x 8-pin PCIe connectors. If you think that’s a bit much, the iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan is also equipped with a 14+4 phase power system, way more than it needs to power the 3060 Ti die and memory. This type of set-up would be suitable for extreme overclocking. With a few modifications and some LN2; this could be a record-breaker.

Speaking of overclocking, the RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V also comes with a one-touch overclock button. It’s similar to a BIOS switch on the PCB, except this one is located on the end of the card near the I/O ports. The location is rather convenient since the case doesn’t need to be opened to access it. This OC button is also backlit with a blue LED when active taking any guesswork out of it. It does require a reboot for activation, raising the max boost from 1965 MHz to 2045 MHz for a nice uplift in performance.

On the software front, Colorful uses its own iGame Control Center. Similar to other offerings, it provides real-time monitoring of the entire system, an overclocking utility, a GUI for the LCD 3.0 screen, and control for the RGB lighting.​​

	Storm Chaser Triple fans with brand new 13-blade design. Through adjustment of dynamic balance and multiple tests, we found that the raised edge angle can push more airflow into the radiator and further increase blowing capacity.
	iGame Vacuum Copper Plate Technics Fills cooling liquid and copper powder into the vacuum space area to absorb and dissipate heat quickly and efficiently. Increased cooling area by 50% compared with the last generation.
	One-Key Overclock Easy and fast. Simply press one button to achieve overclocking performance. We’ve also added a new overclocking indicator light to give you better interactive DIY experience.
	iGame Status Monitor 3.0 Upgraded LCD 3.0 with a 480x128px screen size. Can be flipped 90° to make it visible when the graphics card is mounted vertically. Supports real-time data, custom JPG and GIF.
	Silver Plating Technology Conduct silver plating technology to ensure faster instruction transfer reaction of every component on the PCB board.

Retail Packaging and Accessories

Colorful’s retail packaging for the iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V is the usual black box-in-box type. There’s an image of the card diagonally across the front, along with the iGame and Vulcan branding, as well as the RTX 3060 Ti model designation. Flipping the box around, you’ll see several features and specifications listed.

When you open the box up, you’re greeted by an envelope with iGame and its logo, which fits into the foam packing top. The envelope holds all of the paperwork (manuals, offers, etc.) included. Colorful has even thrown in a pair of white gloves for handling the card. It may be difficult to see in the pics below, but the packaging’s insides are lined with a black velour material, giving the packaging a ‘premium’ feel. The extras don’t stop there either as there’s an extra box inside with the card. This box contains the extra cables for the RGB, LCD synchronization, and custom image upload for the iGame LCD 3.0 screen, a support bracket for the card, and a small screwdriver set – which was used to disassemble the card.

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Meet the Colorful iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V

The iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan is mostly black with some gunmetal gray accent pieces around the plastic shroud’s edges. The shroud has an angular design, with most of the real estate taken up by the three large Storm Chaser fans, each of which is badged with the iGame logo. The center fan has RGB LED accents on two opposite corners between the outer fans.

The backplate of the card is where most RGB lighting is located, consisting of a triangular iGame logo. The colors are saturated and bright but not blinding. The aluminum backplate has a nice, clean grey and black design with GEFORCE RTX printed in white. Using aluminum here is a smart choice for strength and heat dissipation.

The iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V is a good-looking card, and the mostly black theme should fit into most builds. The card takes up three slots and does extend past our EATX-sized Maximus XII Extreme motherboard, so make sure you have the room to house this card inside your case.

A Closer Look

Starting with the I/O area, Colorful gives us three DisplayPort ports (v1.4) and a single HDMI (v2.0b) with a maximum digital resolution of 8K (7680×4320). The I/O plate also has small holes cut out for venting warm air, but an overwhelming majority of the heat is dumped inside the chassis. To the top left, we can see the One-Key overclock button, which is lit with a light blue LED when active.

Looking at the Vulcan OC-V’s backend, to the left, we have the securing holes for the included support bracket. Next to these, we have the RGB LED header for synchronization and a USB 3.0 Type-C header for uploading custom images to the LCD screen.

As mentioned previously, power is sent to the card by three 8-pin PCIe connectors allowing for more than double the power than this 240 W card needs.

Removing the heatsink reveals the RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V PCB and the Ampere GA104-200-A1 die. The MOSFETs are 50 A OnSemiconductor NCP303151 power stages controlled by a uPI Semiconductor 8-phase uP9512P controller (14-phase GPU core). We also have a couple of uPI uP9512S 4-phase controllers for the memory. This power set-up has nearly double the power stages compared to most other RTX 3060 Tis.

We can take a good look at Colorful’s vapor-chamber-based cooler design with five 8 mm heat pipes transferring heat to the rear fin-array in the picture to the right. All of the important bits such as memory ICs and MOSFETs directly contact the cooler via thermal tape. Overall it’s a very efficient design that keeps things cool and quiet even while overclocked.

Below is a closeup of the power bits, Samsung GDDR6, the Ampere GA104-200-A1 die, monitoring, and control ICs.

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GPU-Z and the Colorful iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V on the test bench…

As you can see from the GPU-Z shot above, the iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V has a stock operating clock of 1410 MHz with a 1665 MHz Boost that changes to 1815 MHz with the one-key OC active. The full boost speed from this sample peaked at 1965 MHz and 2045 MHz respectively. Below is a picture of the card on the test bench showing off its size, a bit of RGB, and the iGame LCD 3.0 screen.

Test System and Benchmark Methods

Our test system is based on the latest mainstream Intel z490 platform and uses the i9-10900K 10/20t CPU. The CPU is overclocked to 4.9 GHz on all cores/threads, with cache set to 4.3 GHz. The clock speeds used provides a good base to minimize any limitations the CPU may have on our titles, particularly when using the lower resolutions, and should be attainable with a good air cooler or better. The DRAM is in a 2×8 GB configuration at 3600 MHz with CL16-16-16-36-2T timings. This is a middle of the road option balancing performance and cost.

The tests were done with the Colorful iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V in stock, factory overclocked, and manually overclocked configurations. The factory overclock is denoted as OCB, and the manual overclock is marked as OC. Both are in parenthesis.

We have made some significant changes since the last update adding a few new titles and dropping some of the older games. More details can be found in the GPU Testing Procedure article, which we have updated with our latest benchmarks. Below is a quick summary for easy reference.

• UL 3DMark Time Spy – Default settings
• UL 3DMark Fire Strike (Extreme) – Default settings
• UL 3DMark Port Royal – Default Settings (Ray Tracing capable cards only)
• Unigine Superposition – Performance, 1080p High
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider – DX12, “Highest” preset (will add RTX when it has been patched)
• The Division 2 – DX12, Ultra preset, VSync Off
• Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey – Ultra High preset, VSync Off
• Far Cry New Dawn – Ultra defaults
• F1 2020 – DX12, Very High defaults, TAA, and x16 AF, Australia track, do not show FPS counter
• Metro: Exodus – DX12, Ultra defaults

Synthetic Benchmarks

Our first set of benchmarks hail from Underwriters Laboratories, who acquired Futuremark back in 2014. Earlier in 2018, a rebrand occurred, and since that time, Futuremark is now UL. The benchmarks have not changed, just the name. We chose to stick with 3DMark Fire Strike (Extreme) and 3DMark Time Spy as these tests give users a good idea of performance on modern titles. We’ve also added 3DMark Port Royal, the first Ray Tracing benchmark designed for Windows 10 PCs and graphics cards with Microsoft DirectX Raytracing capabilities.

3DMark Fire Strike (Extreme) is a DX11-based test that runs at 1080p resolution. UL says the graphics are rendered with detail and complexity far beyond other DX11 benchmarks and games. 3DMark Time Spy is a DX12 benchmark designed for Windows 10 PCs. It supports new API features such as asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, multi-threading, and runs at 2560×1440.

In our synthetic tests, the Colorful iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V performed well. We’ll see a consistent theme throughout all of our testing, in that the RTX 3060 Ti performs right in the RTX 2080 Super/RTX 2080 Ti range, typically slipping right between the two and around a 50% gain over the RTX 2060. We’ll also see the iGame RTX 3060 Ti trailing the MSI 3060 Ti at stock and pulling ahead in the factory overclock (OCB) position.

Gaming Benchmarks

We have updated our testing suite for gaming benchmarks to bring more modern titles into the mix. Gone are Battlefield V, F1 2018, Far Cry 5, AOTS:e, and World of Tanks, which were replaced with Metro Exodus, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, F1 2020, and Far Cry: New Dawn. We kept The Division 2 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The games should provide a good view of the card’s overall performance. Many of these are DX12 games.

1080p (1920 x 1080) Results

Much like our synthetic benchmarks, the gaming benchmarks show the iGame 3060 Ti Vulcan trading punches with the RTX 2080 Super again. Outside of Far Cry, which doesn’t respond well at the lower resolution, everything falls into place here. Overclocking the RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan pushed it very close to the RTX 2080 Ti in many of our benchmarks. Using the one-key overclock button gives the iGame 3060 Ti Vulcan a nice bump in performance throughout our testing, making it an obvious choice to leave it active.

2560 x 1440 and 4K UHD Results

Below are the higher resolution results starting with 2560 x 1440 and the gaining in popularity 3840 x 2160 (4K UHD). These resolutions prove to be a bit of a stretch for some cards, especially in the budget range.

In looking at the charts above, we see the Colorful iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V handles the 1440p resolution well, maintaining 60 FPS or better through all of our tests. Bumping up the resolution to 4K UHD proves to be a bit more difficult for the 3060 Ti with the details set to high. Interestingly, once overclocked, the Vulcan is close to and even surpasses the RTX 2080 Ti in some of our high-resolution benchmarks.

RTX and DLSS Testing

Below, we tested Metro Exodus and Shadow of the Tomb Raider with ray tracing (RTX) turned on at 1440p and 4K. As you can see, DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) did improve frame rates, but they were still well below our previous results without ray tracing enabled. Gaming at 1440p with RT enabled would be possible with the iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V, but 4K is just a stretch here.

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Overclocking

For overclocking, we used Colorful’s iGame Control Center. Leaving the one-key to overclock button active and with some tinkering, we ended up at +116 for the core and +1008 on the memory. This change yielded a peak clock of 2145 MHz in-game. We simply raised the power limit to its maximum, a generous 133%, and fan speeds were left on auto. This gave us a performance boost of up to 10% across all resolutions compared to bone stock settings.

Overclocking Software

Colorful’s iGame Control Center works very well but isn’t the most intuitive. Finding the performance option took a bit of fumbling, but it was straightforward to use once we were there. This software is the hub for all of your Vulcan’s options, including the RGB LEDs. We had the card attached to the motherboard with the supplied cable, so RGB LED control worked from the ASUS Aura software, but this software would change the card and memory colors and multiple effects.

The monitoring capabilities were quite extensive. Not only would it display GPU stats such as load, speed, and temperature, but it did the same for your CPU as well. This ties into the iGame LCD 3.0 control. As you can see in the pic below, Colorful offers many CPU and GPU statistics to be displayed either singly or on a split-screen. You also have the ability to “spin” the screen to display vertically if using the 3060 Ti Vulcan in a vertical mounting position.

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Temperatures and Power Use

We test power consumption by running through the game benchmarks of Shadow of the Tomb Raider and F1 2020 at stock speeds and while overclocked. We monitor temperatures throughout this testing, with the peak temperature listed in the data below. To more accurately simulate real gaming conditions, the benchmarks are extended (time) to allow the card to settle.

When we tested for temperatures, the fans were left on auto for stock and overclocking. The card peaked at 62 °C at stock and 62 °C while overclocked in both titles. The card was quiet throughout testing, even with the fans spinning up over 60%. The Storm Chaser cooling solution does an excellent job keeping the card cool and quiet during operation.

Power use on this 240 W+ card peaked at 408 W (system) overclocked and 375 W while at stock in the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark. The iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V gave us great performance per Watt compared to some of its bigger siblings and stayed well within its power rating. A quality 550 W PSU will be sufficient for most setups, including overclocking both CPU and GPU and still allowing for headroom and quiet operation.

Conclusion

Colorful’s iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V is a good solid performer. Once overclocked, it pushed past the MSI RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio we recently reviewed in every test.  Having a higher TDP of 240 W compared to the 200 W of the MSI really did give it an advantage. It may not handle 4K well using Ultra settings, but would if they were dialed back slightly. At 1080p and 1440p resolutions, the RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan breezed through all titles at full details. The card can even use Ray-Tracing at 1440p. Considering the performance is on par with the RTX 2080 Super and very close to the RTX 2080 Ti in some tests, the RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan didn’t fail to impress.

The iGame Vulcan OC-V from Colorful has so many extras it’s hard to list them all. It has a nice sleek design and tasteful RGB LED implementation on the surface, but inside it has more than it takes to perform. There we have a custom PCB with silver electrical contacts and a massive 14+4 phase power delivery system, which is more than enough to push the RTX 3060 Ti core and 8 GB of GDDR6 delivering exceptional performance. Colorful has also done a great job with its cooling solution. This improved vapor-chamber cooling design kept the 3060 Ti Vulcan at an even 62 °C whether at stock or overclocked, and the Storm Chaser fans were nice and quiet throughout all of our tests.

Pinning down an MSRP has proven difficult for the iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V. The card isn’t available quite yet for retail but will be soon. This raises another question for those of us in North America: Can we get a Colorful GPU? We’ve found some older generations on Newegg.com, but they’re overpriced, like Walmart.com. Looking overseas, we can find some iGame RTX 3060 Tis for sale in India for around $600.00 USD and also in Australia, but they’re a bit pricier. Hopefully, Colorful will expand into the North American market since they have some interesting products. As I said, the iGame RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC-V is, in every way, “over the top” and in a class by itself!

– Shawn Jennings (Johan45)

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