COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V Review

1. Introduction
2. Everything You Need to Know About Ampere
3. COLORFUL marketing
4. Detailed Look
5. Test System Specs
6. Benchmarks - Synthetic
7. Benchmarks - 1080p
8. Benchmarks - 1440p
9. Benchmarks - 4K
10. Overclocking
11. Power Consumption & Temps
12. What's Hot, What's Not
13. Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 99%

The Bottom Line

COLORFUL has a great custom GeForce RTX 3080 that stands out with its old school TURBO button and awesome LCD display. Another solid custom RTX 3080.

Introduction

COLORFUL has one of the most wicked GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards on the market, one of the cards that stands out from the crowd with its new LCD display. I'm pretty pumped going into this review, that LCD alone makes me want to build a new gaming PC with it in a vertical mount.

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The new iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V has some great out of the box performance, but the new LCD 3.0 display and its large 480 x 128 pixel display can be flipped up 90 degrees for vertically mounted graphics cards. There's also an old-school-but-new-school one-key OC button on the rear of the graphics card, too.

COLORFUL has also upgraded the cooler on its new iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V, with the new "Storm Chaser" cooled that is packed with a triple-fan cooler with a new 13-blade design. It also looks mean AF in person, too.

The back of the iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V has the best backplate of any custom GeForce RTX 3080 so far, at least in my opinion. I love the backplate and the LCD display looks great in my rig -- it would look great in your rig, any gaming rig.

• MSI GeForce RTX 3070 GAMING X TRIO Review
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition Review
• ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 (OC Edition) review
• MSI GeForce RTX 3090 GAMING X TRIO review
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition review
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition review
• MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO review
• ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity review

Everything You Need to Know About Ampere

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• Ampere GPU architecture: NVIDIA has so much going on under the Ampere GPU hood, with the GA102 GPU packing a huge 28 billion transistors (that's 28,000,000,000) on the Samsung 8nm node. We have a huge 10496 CUDA cores on GA102, over double the 4608 CUDA cores on the TITAN RTX.
• RTX improvements: NVIDIA has effectively doubled everything when it comes to RTX, where it will rips and tears your games and delivers them to your eyeballs faster than ever before with Ampere. If you want to run any RTX-powered games, you'll want a new GeForce RTX 3080.
• GDDR6X memory: The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has 10GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit memory bus, with a huge 760GB/sec of memory bandwidth. You should see the 4K gaming results for the evidence of the Ampere GPU + GDDR6X memory slaying it.

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• PCIe 4.0 connectivity: NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards are now PCIe 4.0 compatible, so if you're building a new AMD Ryzen 3000 series system with an X570 motherboard -- you will be ready to rock and roll with PCIe 4.0 connectivity.
• HDMI 2.1: 4K 120Hz + 8K 60Hz = single cable: If you are buying a new TV in the coming months or years, HDMI 2.1 is going to be something you want. It opens up the bandwidth floodgates to 4K 120Hz and 8K 60Hz over the single HDMI 2.1 cable.
• RTX IO: NVIDIA's introduction of RTX IO with Ampere is very similar to the ultra-fast game load times on the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles. You can read all about RTX IO right here, which is something we'll see build more foundation in 2021 and beyond.

COLORFUL marketing

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Detailed Look

COLORFUL has a wicked retail package for its GeForce RTX 3080, showing off that LCD display on the back of the box.

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Out of the box, we have a slick triple-fan design.

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I love the back of the card, but it looks even better with its RGB lighting enabled.

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See? You can change these RGB lights to different colors through COLORFUL's own software, as well as the modes like 'Breathing' and 'Rainbow', etc.

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From the top and bottom, we have a chunky (and heavy) custom GeForce RTX 3080.

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You will need 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors for the COLORFUL iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V.

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You have the standard 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI 2.1 connector on the back, next to the 90s-style TURBO button.

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The COLORFUL iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V rocks an awesome LCD display, that can show GPU temps, GPU clock speeds, and so much more -- right down to custom text.

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Here we have the 'dual display' mode where we have two sides, and in the COLORFUL software you can tweak this to have two details on the left and right.

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The custom text feature is pretty cool, but I like the dual display mode showing me real-time GPU clocks and GPU temps.

Test System Specs

Latest upgrade:

Sabrent sent over their huge Rocket Q 8TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD, which will be my new Games install SSD inside of my main test bed.

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I've got a new upgrade inside of my GPU test bed before my change to a next-gen test bed, where I will be preparing for NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere graphics cards and AMD's next-gen RDNA 2 graphics cards.

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Sabrent helped out with some new storage for my GPU test beds, sending over a slew of crazy-fast Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSDs. I've got this installed into my GPU test bed as the new Games Storage drive, since games are so damn big now. Thanks to Sabrent, I've got 2TB of super-fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage now.

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Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

I've recently upgraded my GPU test bed -- at least for now, until AMD's new Ryzen 9 5950X processor is unleashed then the final update for 2020 will happen and we'll be all good for RDNA 2 and future Ampere GPU releases. You can read my article here: TweakTown GPU Test Bed Upgrade for 2021, But Then Zen 3 Was Announced.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (buy from Amazon)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII HERO (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R RGB (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z NEO RGB 32GB (4x8GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
• SSD: Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W (buy from Amazon)
• Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional x64 (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike

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3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark TimeSpy

Heaven

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

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Benchmarks - 1080p

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

We have performance that actually topples the GeForce RTX 3080 FE with the overclocked MSI RTX 3070 GAMING X TRIO in Shadow of War at 1080p -- which is kinda nuts, while the RTX 3090 FE is only 2FPS faster than the card overclocked.

At stock settings the MSI RTX 3070 GAMING X TRIO equals the RTX 2080 Ti, is 2FPS behind the TITAN RTX (that costs $2499) while the MSI RTX 3070 GAMING X TRIO overclocked beats the TITAN RTX -- and then trails the RTX 3080 by 11FPS. Impressive stuff for 1080p.

Benchmarks - 1440p

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

It's at 2560 x 1440 and 3440 x 1440 that the GeForce RTX 3070 really shines, with the overclocked card once against toppling the $2499 TITAN RTX in Shadow of War and Metro Exodus at 1440p. It's really incredible stuff to see happening in person. A new $500-$560 card equaling and bettering the performance of a card worth $2000 more.

Benchmarks - 4K

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

4K gaming performance sees the MSI RTX 3070 GAMING X TRIO beating the RTX 2080 Ti and reference RTX 3070 FE, and just 2FPS away from the $2499 monster TITAN RTX in Shadow of War.

We have the same 45FPS as the TITAN RTX with the overclocked MSI RTX 3070 GAMING X TRIO in Metro Exodus, while at stock settings it equals the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition with 43FPS and beats the RTX 3070 FE with its 41FPS average.

Overclocking

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Out of the box the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V was boosting up to 2025MHz or so, and was comfortable sitting at around 1905MHz most of the time.

Once the Turbo button was pressed and some manual overclocking was applied, I was able to have my sample boosting at 2055MHz rock solid but saw peaks of 2130MHz in Watch Dogs: Legion and Control where it was stable. It was hitting 2145MHz but would crash almost instantly.

Power Consumption & Temps

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With the COLORFUL iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V consumes 455W with the entire PC, and up to 520W when fully overclocked.

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As for temps, we're looking at around 67-68C for 100% GPU load, while it runs at 61C when the fans are cranked up to maximum.

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

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• Kick ass RTX 3080 performance: We have some magnificent performance out of the COLORFUL iGame RTX 3080 Vulcan X OC graphics card, where it beats the already impressive RTX 3080 FE. It has a wicked design, glorious and exclusive LCD display, and even a Turbo button.
• Turbo button: I grew up as a PC gamer of the 90s so I have fond memories of the Turbo button on my PC. But now I have one on the back of my graphics card for some of that one-click OC action... thanks, COLORFUL!

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LCD display: The LCD display is great, being able to have your GPU temps and GPU clocks showing up in real-time is awesome, with the custom text feature another nice touch. All easily tweakable through software on your PC.

What's Not

There's not much here to hate!

Final Thoughts

COLORFUL has quite the package here with its iGame GeForce RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V, offering beyond GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition performance with some great OC headroom for some fun with overclocking.

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The LCD display is the centerpiece here, where I ended up using the dual-display function to see real-time GPU temperatures and real-time GPU usage. It looks great inside of the PC, while the entire design of the card is great as well. It looks mean AF and I love it.

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If the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 3080 Vulcan OC 10G-V is available in your country, and you're able to find one right now -- you will not regret it. It's a kick ass custom GeForce RTX 3080 that stands out from its custom RTX 3080 competitors with its slick LCD display.

Now I need to get my hands-on the GeForce RTX 3090 version of this... drool.