If you’re not living under a closet, then you should already know what Colorful is in the PC gaming industry. They are one of the fastest rising brands in the SEA Region, offering graphics cards, motherboards and even memory kits – in the most recent times.

Now this review is of course going to be about their flagship RTX 3080, the iGame Vulcan OC. This is in everyway the epitome of the brand itself with over the top styling, an LCD display and with a huge cooler to boot.

Technical Specifications

GPU
Model NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
Cores 8704 (Cuda), 68 (RT)
Core Clock 1440MHz
Boost Clock 1710MHz, 1800MHz OC
Architecture Ampere
Manufacturing Process 8nm
TDP 370W
Memory
Memory Clock 1188MHz, 19Gbps
Memory Bus Width 320-bit
Memory Capacity 10GB
Memory Type GDDR6X
Connectivity
Display 1x DisplayPort 1.4a, 3x HDMI 2.1
Power 3x 8-Pin
Dimensions
Length 323mm
Width 156mm
Height 60.5mm, 3 slot
Weight 2100g

Packaging and Accessories

Colorful went colossal with the iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC’s packaging. This is larger than most color boxes and there’s a reason behind it.

  • 1x Thank you card
  • 1x Quick start guide
  • 1x Micro fiber cloth
  • 1x Pair of white gloves
  • 1x Screw driver set
  • 1x Bracket set
  • 1x USB header
  • 1x RGB Header

There’s a lot going on with this particular iGame model. We like that Colorful added a bracket as well to support the card’s weight.

Design, Layout and Build Quality

Like many RTX 30 series cards, the iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC is gargantuan but with a dash of elegance – completely opposite to the previous iGame cards we’ve seen so far. This is a two kilogram card though which is among the heaviest we’ve seen so far.

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The back plate is conventional with the exception of the RGB lighting at the iGame logo and a few graphics. Other manufacturers opted for something different but this one goes well with the styling of the iGame RTX 3080.

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According to Nvidia, the RTX 3080 has a TDP of 320W while this card is rated at 370W from Colorful themselves. The use of triple 8-pin power connectors makes sure it could get just that – and even more theoretically at 525W with the PCIe taken into account.

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Cooling is provided by three 13-blade storm chaser 90mm fans directly blowing air into the dense array of heat sinks connected via six 8mm heat-pipes. There’s actually a huge plate underneath this setup with liquid cooling to boot. Kinda hybrid cooling technically.

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Connectivity wise, the iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan comes with three DisplayPorts and a single HDMI port. We also got the button here for the one key overclock that should boost the card to 1800MHz.

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Other connectivity options are for the RGB sync and the USB Type-C for the iGame Status Monitor.

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Test Setup and Methodology

System performance is evaluated by industry standard benchmark tools and applications. The system is tested with the following software configurations:

  • UEFI configuration – Default
  • Windows Power Plan – Balanced
  • Windows Game Mode – Disabled
  • Windows Game Bar – Disabled
  • Windows Security – Disabled

Outlined below is the default test system specifications as well as the software and applications used for the review:

Default Test System Specifications
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming
Cooler AMD Wraith Stealth V2
Memory ADATA Premier 2666MHz 16GB
GPU ASUS ROG Strix RX 570 4GB
Storage Crucial BX200 480GB
Case Mechanical Library JXK-K3
PSU Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 650W
Display LG UF680T
OS Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Compute Performance:

  • AIDA64 Extreme Edition – GPGPU Benchmark, Single-Precision
  • LuxMark v3.1 – LuxBall HDR, OpenCL

Gaming Performance:

  • CS:GO: DirectX 9, Maximum Settings, 8x MSAA, FXAA
  • Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege: Vulkan, Ultra Preset, TXAA, 16x AF
  • League of Legends: DirectX 9, Very High Preset
  • DOTA 2: DirectX 11, Best Looking Preset, AA
  • Assetto Corsa: DirectX 11, Maximum Settings, 4x AA, FXAA, 16x AF
  • F1 2020: DirectX 12, Ultra High Preset, TAA, x16 AF
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers: DirectX 11, Maximum Preset, FXAA, x16 AF
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider: DX12, Highest Preset, TAA, 8x AF

Temperature, Power and Noise:

  • OCCT v5.0: 3D and VRAM Test
Benchmarks for the review are recorded via CapFrameX and in full screen mode. Motion-blur and V-SYNC are turned off unless otherwise stated.

Temperature, Power and Noise

Graphics card thermal figures are taken during a 15 minute idle and a 15 minute load via OCCT’s 3D stress test. The ambient temperature is checked at 27 °C (±1 °C), with values extracted via HWiNFO and GPU-Z.

Colorful iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan Benchmarks 3

Now total system power consumption are also noted during the stress test. The measurements are then taken by a watt-meter.

Colorful iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan Benchmarks 4

Graphics card noise levels are also measured via the OCCT 3D stress test. The ambient sound level or noise floor is about 34 dBA (±1 dBA). Measurements are then taken via a sound level meter situated exactly 12 inches away from the card.

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The Colorful iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC is relatively cool and quiet but with a higher power output and operating temperature at load compared to the other RTX 3080 card tested.

Synthetic Performance

The Aida64 Extreme Edition GPGPU Benchmark is designed to measure GPGPU computing performance via different workloads. Our choice here is the Single-Precision benchmark to check out the floating-point performance of the card.

Colorful iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan Benchmarks 1

LuxMark is an OpenCL cross-platform benchmark tool. Scene of choice is the LuxBall HDR. It is a benchmark with a total of 217K triangles required to render.

Colorful iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan Benchmarks 2

Synthetic benchmark performance are just excellent. Both modes are just next to each other in terms of performance.

Gaming Performance

CS:GO is Valve’s critically acclaimed FPS game, running on the Source engine utilizing the DirectX 9 API. Demo used is the grand finals match between Astralis and ENCE at IEM Katowice 2019.

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Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is a popular FPS title developed by Ubisoft utilizing the AnvilNext 2.0 engine with DirectX 11 and Vulkan API support. The benchmark tool within the game is used for this run.

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League of Legends is one of the genre defining MOBA games in the industry. It utilizes RIOT Game’s in-house engine written in C++ with support for the DirectX 9 API. Demo of choice is a Summoner’s Rift replay via the ROFL-Player.

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DOTA 2 is yet another popular MOBA game featuring Valve’s Source 2 engine with support for a number of APIs. Benchmark of choice here is a demo from OG and Liquid’s grand finals match at The International 2019.

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Assetto Corsa is a sim-racing game developed by Kunos Simulazioni with extensive support for customization. The game runs on a in-house engine with support for DirectX 11. The built-in benchmarking tool is used for the run.

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F1 2020 is the official F1 racing game developed by Codemasters utilizing the Ego Engine 3.0 with support for DirectX 11 and DirectX 12. API of choice is DirectX 12 with the built-in benchmarking tool utilized for the review.

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Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers is an MMORPG created by Square Enix. It uses the tried and tested Crystal Tools game engine with support for DirectX 11. The built-in benchmark tool is used for this run.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the third installment for Eidos-Montréal’s reboot of the original series. The updated Foundation game engine is featured in this game with support for DirectX 11 and DirectX 12. The first few scenes from the built-in benchmark tool is used for this review.

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Gaming performance wise, the card is pretty much excellent but with the same caveat of the last RTX 3080 we reviewed. That said, expect great AAA title performance but expect low GPU usage on some lighter titles. These cards are still throttling down whenever they feel the need to – to save power.

Software, Lighting and Special Features

Apart from the obvious support for GeForce Experience, real-time ray tracing, DLSS and other AI enhanced Nvidia solutions, the Colorful iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC comes with the iGame Center software.

Colorful iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC Images 1

The iGame software is pretty cool – like legit cool. It doesn’t look stupid compared to other bundled apps and works with simplicity in mind. You could adjust the performance of the card from here with the ability to fine tune fan speed as well – but not in a curve.

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Via the software and the included RGB header + cable, you may sync the card’s lighting with any compatible components. For this to work, you have to unlink the card’s lighting options from the software.

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Of course, statistics about the fan speed, core and memory clock plus other important stuff are included on the software as well.

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Lighting is superb with tons of effects to choose from but, the actual highlight of the card is the programmable LCD. This, along with the lighting, makes up for a very customizable facade.

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Another thing worth noting about the card is its bundle. I don’t usually talk about these on reviews but damn, if the accessories could make you feel like you’re handling something important like a jewelry or something, then it could very much be.

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Final Thoughts

Colorful have outdone themselves with the iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC. This is a proper flagship with its build quality and meticulous design elements backing it up on a physical level.

As for the performance, this is no doubt an RTX 3080 with extra juice out of the box and with every bit of it available to be squeezed out with just a push of a button. While we’ve seem better cooling performance at load, the noise level on this thing at stock form is almost dead silent. The gaming performance makes up for it though which is 4K UHD ready – again, that’s what you would expect from a GeForce RTX 3080.

Now with all the bundle, performance, features and craftsmanship taken into account, Colorful managed to tag the iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan with a suggested price of 53,000 Pesos. I’d say if you want to flex really hard, then this is the card to burn your hard earned cash.

TechPorn Awards 2018 (1)

Colorful iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V
  • Performance - 9/10
    9/10
  • Build Quality - 9/10
    9/10
  • Features - 9/10
    9/10
  • Design - 9/10
    9/10
  • Value - 8.5/10
    8.5/10
8.9/10

Summary

Colorful managed to tag the iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan with a suggested price of 53,000 Pesos. I’d say if you want to flex really hard, then this is the card to burn your hard earned cash.

Pros

  • Excellent gaming performance
  • Runs cool and quite but mode dependent
  • Customizable LCD is lit
  • Exceptional craftsmanship
  • Good software and UI as well
  • Price point is excellent
  • Bundled accessories worthy of attention

Cons

  • Heavy graphics card
  • OC mode temperature at load
  • Power draw – like all RTX 3080s out there
  • 3 slot clearance required

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