COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC Review - When Style and Performance Meet

TweakTown Rating: 90%

Our Verdict

With its hip-hop-inspired look, the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC is not only one of the more stylish RTX 5070 cards on the market, but it's also backed by impressive cooling and enough OC potential to push its stellar 1440p gaming performance even higher.

Pros

• Rock-solid 1440p gaming performance
• DLSS 4 and 4.5 are both game-changers
• Ready for path tracing
• Stylish, hip-hop-inspired design
• Excellent cooling and thermal performance

Cons

• Current GPU pricing and availability
• Serious competition from AMD's RDNA 4 line-up
• Not quite the generation leap forward when compared to the RTX 4070 SUPER

Should you buy it?

AvoidConsiderShortlistBuy

View price at Amazon

Lowest price in 30 days

View price at Amazon

Lowest price in 30 days

View price at Amazon

View price at Amazon

Also at PC Case Gear

Introduction

It's been over a year since the arrival of the GeForce RTX 50 Series. Since then, it's become clear that the most popular model among PC gamers, whether upgrading their existing rig or putting together something new, has been the mid-range GeForce RTX 5070. It's not only the most popular card in the GeForce RTX 50 Series but, according to Steam's most recent data, one of the most popular discrete gaming GPUs, period. Although the current memory crisis, shortages, and price increases affecting the wider consumer technology market have certainly put a damper on the value proposition of building any new PC for gaming, creative workloads, or AI, it's not hard to see why the GeForce RTX 5070 has risen to the top, so to speak.

It's a mid-range sweet-spot GPU that shines when gaming at the popular 1440p resolution, with performance and image fidelity enhanced with DLSS 4 and the new DLSS 4.5 technology. It's also got 12GB of fast GDDR7 memory, so for now it's more than capable of running the latest titles with high or very high graphics settings, with or without ray tracing, and delivering a consistent 60+ or even 100+ experience when you factor in DLSS. Although it's not quite as much of a generational leap over the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER refresh that arrived at the beginning of 2024, when you compare the overclocked COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC's performance to the baseline GeForce RTX 4070, you're looking at a decent 30% performance increase, on average, when gaming in 1440p.

We got our first look at COLORFUL's graffiti and street art-inspired iGame Ultra design last year, with the company releasing white variants for the GeForce RTX 50 Series lineup. This year, the design has been updated, with the new Ultra models arriving in black and purple, a darker and more striking look better suited to builds that aren't going for that all-white look. Aesthetics isn't the most important thing when it comes to a GPU, but it's an important part of the design, especially when most modern cases have either a single tempered glass side panel or panoramic views.

The good news is that, in addition to a striking, stylish look that helps the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC stand out from a sea of RTX 5070 models, it also has the thermal and gaming performance to match. A 1440p gaming beast that's also primed and ready to play the latest cinematic games with ray tracing or path tracing enabled.

RTX Blackwell - NVIDIA's Gaming Architecture for the AI Era

Below is a summary of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 Series and RTX Blackwell architecture, applicable to all models.

NVIDIA describes 'Neural Rendering,' which includes all previous versions of DLSS and the brand-new DLSS 4, as the 'next era for computer graphics.' They're not alone; the Lead System Architect for the PlayStation 5 Pro console, Mark Cerny, said that ray-tracing is the future of games and that AI will play an integral role in making that happen. DOOM: The Dark Ages developer id Software shared a similar sentiment, adding that the arrival of DLSS was an 'inflection point' for PC game visuals and performance, and on par with the arrival of dedicated GPUs and programmable shaders.

Best Deals: GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5070 WINDFORCE OC

Prices last scanned 3 hours and 50 minutes ago

Today 7 days ago 30 days ago Buy

$635.99 USD

7 days ago: $635.99 USD30 days ago: $635.99 USD

$635.99 USD

$635.99 USD

BuyBuy at Amazon

$899.99 CAD

7 days ago: $899.99 CAD30 days ago: $899.99 CAD

$899.99 CAD

$899.99 CAD

BuyBuy at Amazon

Check Price

-

-

CheckCheck Price at Amazon

Check Price

-

-

CheckCheck Price at Amazon

Check Price

-

-

CheckCheck Price at Newegg

Check Price

-

-

CheckCheck Price at Newegg

Check Price

-

-

CheckCheck Price at PC Case Gear

With the arrival of the Blackwell generation and the GeForce RTX 50 Series, AI is now being used to accelerate programmable shaders with the brand-new RTX Neural Shaders. Yes, these are actual neural networks that use live game data, and the power of Tensor Cores to do everything from compress textures, render lifelike materials with a level of detail impossible to match using traditional rendering methods, and even use AI to partially trace rays and then infer "an infinite amount of rays and bounces for a more accurate representation of indirect lighting in the game scene."

58

RTX Mega Geometry is impressive in its own right; it essentially increases a scene's geometry detail and complexity (triangles or polygons) by up to 100x. 100 times the detail, it's hard to wrap your head around - but the added benefit in a game like Alan Wake 2 is dramatically improving the performance of the game's Full Ray Tracing or Path Tracing mode. With DLSS 4.5 and RTX Neural Shaders, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 Series and RTX Blackwell architecture (which includes the same AI optimizations as data center Blackwell) can be viewed as the turning point for PC gaming - the moment when AI becomes integral to everything from designing a game to programming and then finally rendering it on a 4K display to play.

DLSS 4 and 4.5 include more goodies than NVIDIA's highly touted new Multi Frame Generation technology, but let's start there. DLSS 3's version of Frame Generation has evolved with DLSS 4, powered by Blackwell hardware and software, and an innovative use of AI to generate frames 40% faster while using 30% less VRAM. Switching to a new model also means that Frame Generation and Multi-Frame Generation could eventually come to GeForce RTX 20, 30, and RTX 40 Series owners. DLSS 4 benefits all GeForce RTX gamers.

However, with the 5th Generation of Tensor Cores in the GeForce RTX 50 Series delivering 2.5X more AI performance, NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs can execute five complex AI models - covering Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, and Multi Frame Generation in a couple of milliseconds. Part of the reason it happens so quickly is the addition of hardware Flip Metering, which shifts frame pacing to the Blackwell display engine, resulting in frame rates of up to 240 FPS at 4K and higher without stuttering. With up to 15 of every 16 pixels generated by AI, the result is up to 8X the performance when compared to native rendering or rasterized performance.

58

DLSS Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction are also switching to a new 'Transformer' model, with over double the number of parameters and four times the compute requirements. This is one of the most exciting aspects of the GeForce RTX 50 Series, as it pushes DLSS into a new realm of image quality and performance. DLSS 4.5 takes this even further. The best part is that it works on all GeForce RTX GPUs; however, there will be a performance hit compared to running it on an RTX 50 Series GPU. Already available in 250+ games, DLSS 4 and 4.5's Transformer model is another DLSS 2.0-like moment for the technology, and the results speak for themselves.

Even better, DLSS is now integrated into the NVIDIA App with the 'DLSS Override' feature that allows users to experience the latest tech without waiting for a patch or game update. It doesn't stop there, as the new AI Management Processor (AMP) allows AI models to share the GPU with graphics workloads. As a result, expect to see digital humans in games, alongside AI assistants like NVIDIA's Project G-Assist, becoming more prevalent in the coming years. This filters down to the creator side, with AI assistants for streamers, who also benefit from the GeForce RTX 50 Series' expanded creator features.

RTX Blackwell introduces 4:2:2 chroma-sampled video encoding and decoding. The ninth-generation NVENC encoder also improves AV1 and HEVC quality. The flagship GeForce RTX 5090 supports up to three encoders and two decoders, delivering a 50% gen-over-gen speed improvement over the GeForce RTX 4090. The GeForce RTX 5080 adds a second decoder compared to the GeForce RTX 4080. RTX Blackwell is a game-changer for creators and editors, especially with its new low-voltage, cutting-edge GDDR7 memory that dramatically improves bandwidth and speed.

Specs and Test System

Specifications

Here's a look at the specs for the GeForce RTX 5070 compared with the previous-generation GeForce RTX 4070, GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.

When looking purely at the specs, the GeForce RTX 5070 is something of an oddity. It's built on a similar, albeit optimized, custom TSMC 4N process as the GeForce RTX 4070, but it only features 4% more CUDA, Tensor, and RT Cores. Not only that, but when you compare the specs to the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER refresh, the GeForce RTX 5070 actually features 14% fewer CUDA, Tensor, and RT Cores. This paints the picture of a GPU that's more of an incremental update or refresh (a second one at that) than a generational leap forward. However, the opposite is true: the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC delivers 1440p gaming performance that is, on average, 30.4% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070.

This makes the RTX 5070 a showcase of sorts for the architectural improvements and enhancements that RTX Blackwell brings to modern PC gaming. And with performance eclipsing the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, it can do more with less while leveraging its advanced AI hardware for DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution and Dynamic Frame Generation to unlock a new level of performance, smoothness, and image fidelity. As an OC model, COLORFUL's design here includes a physical 'Turbo' button that boosts the Boost Clock speed to 2557 MHz, a modest but still notable increase over the 2512 MHz reference design, with the option to further increase clock speeds via the company's revamped iGame Center app.

58

One area where the GeForce RTX 5070 presents a notable improvement over the previous generation is the adoption of ultra-fast GDRR7 memory, with the 12GB model offering 33% higher memory bandwidth, which directly impacts performance. The faster memory also plays into the more advanced AI hardware inside the RTX 5070, with the latest generation of Tensor Cores and architecture supporting FP4, enabling more advanced models to run locally that would otherwise not be available on the RTX 4070. And for creators, you've got the latest NVENC hardware for video encoding and decoding, and all of the latest software and features that leverage RTX Blackwell to enhance app performance. Throw in DisplayPort 2.1, HMDI 2.1, and PCIe Gen5, and the GeForce RTX 5070 is still as cutting-edge as it was the day it was released.

Kosta's Test System

Physical Design and Cooling

COLORFUL notes that the design here is inspired by hip-hop culture, with nods to street art and graffiti, and a blend of stylish, funky flourishes that lend the overall look a layer of coolness. Compared to last year's white variant, we think this new darker version is the more visually impressive of the two, as the black blends exceptionally well with the purple graffiti, the RGB light strip that spells out 'iGame Ultra' like it's a neon sign from the 1980s, and the holographic effect on the front of the card. This is definitely subjective, but we think it's one of the best-looking and most stylish GeForce RTX 5070 cards out there, and we also know that it's a design that won't be to everyone's taste.

58

The COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC is also relatively compact and SFF-Ready, with a 2.5-slot thickness and a length of 300mm. This makes it an RTX 5070 that shouldn't have any issue slotting into some of the more compact cases out there, while still leaving enough room for airflow. The design includes three high-quality fans with ring-shaped blades to enhance airflow, a dual ball-bearing design, and support for a 0dB mode that sees the fans stop once temperatures drop below a certain threshold. Basically, when you're not gaming, the fans won't spin, and the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC will stay impressively cool.

58

The cooling design and thermal performance here are impressive, with large fins and a nickel-plated copper base providing ample heat dissipation for the GPU and memory. COLORFUL notes that its GPU manufacturing process now includes reflow soldering, which eliminates surface defects and, in turn, enhances heat transfer and the flow of heat away from critical components. The COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC features a dual BIOS, and in a fun little touch, there's an old-school 'Turbo' button on the I/O bracket to enable or disable the OC mode. Throw in a metal backplate with a large vent (and more graffiti-style art), and it's clear that COLORFUL has put together an impressive custom RTX 5070 with its new Ultra design.

The Games and Tests

PC gaming spans a wide range of genres and styles, from indie games with simple 2D graphics to massive 3D worlds lit by cutting-edge real-time ray tracing. With that, each gamer's needs and requirements vary. High refresh rates and reduced latency are more important than flashy visuals or playing at the highest resolution possible for those who live and breathe fast-paced competitive games. For those who want to live in a cinematic world and become a key player in an expansive narrative, ray tracing and high-fidelity visuals are a stepping stone toward greater immersion.

58

Our chosen benchmarks cover various games, engines, APIs, and technologies. For the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC, all tests are run at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, and include results for performance-boosting Super Resolution technologies like NVIDIA DLSS 4 - including Frame Generation and Multi Frame Generation. In many ways, DLSS numbers are more important than native rendering - a title with ray tracing isn't meant to be played without Super Resolution. Also, DLSS technologies like Ray Reconstruction dramatically improve visual fidelity and detail compared to native rendering. However, our benchmark results are still sorted using 'raw performance' or native rendering.

Here's the breakdown of games, settings, and what's being tested.

Games and Settings Benchmarked

Path Tracing Games and Settings Benchmarked

GPUs Included in Our Testing

Offering a wide range of GPUs for comparison adds much-needed context when evaluating overall performance, efficiency, and value. Here's the full list of GPU models included in the results: INNO3D GeForce RTX 5060 8GB TWIN X2 OC, SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB PULSE OC, MSI GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Ventus 2X 16GB, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition, MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GAMING X TRIO, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition, GIGABYTE Radeon RX 9070 GAMING OC, ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Steel Legend, MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Ventus 3X, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition.

Gaming Performance Analysis

Average Gaming Performance - 1080p Results

58

1080p or FHD is still the most popular resolution for PC gaming, thanks to the affordability of high-refresh-rate displays and the popularity of competitive titles, where FPS performance is more important than visual fidelity or cinematic lighting effects. Although the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC is better suited for 1440p gaming, it is still an absolute beast at this resolution, with an average of 163 FPS across all 10 titles in our benchmark, which is 27.3% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 and 41.8% faster than the GeForce RTX 5060. At this resolution, the performance also eclipses that of the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and comes in slightly faster than the GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition.

However, at this resolution, you are looking at diminishing returns and bottlenecks, which is why there's only a 10% difference between the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC and the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. A figure that climbs up to 20% when you bump up the resolution to 4K. Interestingly, the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC delivers, on average, performance comparable to the Radeon RX 9070 when gaming at 1080p. However, performance varies from game to game, with the Radeon RX 9070 notably faster in titles like Assassin's Creed Shadows and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. And by that same token, COLORFUL's overclocked GeForce RTX 5070 takes a commanding lead when playing Counter-Strike 2, delivering over 400 FPS at 1080p with Very High graphics settings.

Average Gaming Performance - 1440p Results

58

A mid-range GPU like the GeForce RTX 5070 comes alive when gaming at 1440p, as the increased resolution delivers a crisper, more detailed image while maintaining fantastic performance, further enhanced by DLSS 4 Super Resolution. With only a 27% drop-off in performance when increasing the resolution to 1440p, this is still enough for the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC to deliver an average of 120 FPS across the ten games in our benchmark suite. And as DLSS 4 and 4.5's 'Quality' Super Resolution preset preserves or even improves image quality, that figure jumps up to 140 FPS.

Compared to the previous generation's GeForce RTX 4070, this is a flat 30% improvement. This 30% improvement also applies to the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB graphics card, a model that is best described as the best bang-for-your-buck 1440p GPU in the GeForce RTX 50 Series lineup. Make no mistake about it: at this resolution, the GeForce RTX 5070 delivers enthusiast-class performance and immersion. The hardware-intensive Ultra ray tracing mode in Cyberpunk 2077 runs at a solid 80 FPS with DLSS, with DOOM: The Dark Ages pushing 120 FPS. Although performance here falls behind the baseline Radeon RX 9070, it is worth noting that the widespread adoption of DLSS 4 is a major factor in the RTX 5070's impressive 1440p gaming performance. Here, COLORFUL's model is also faster than the Founder Edition reference design, while also edging out the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.

Average Gaming Performance - 4K Results

58

4K is a demanding resolution, no matter the GPU, as you're looking at eight times the pixels that need to be rendered when compared to 1080p. This also puts pressure on VRAM, requiring more capacity to render titles in 4K, especially for ray tracing and games with Very High or Ultra-like settings. Increasing the resolution from 1440p to 4K results in a 43% performance drop when gaming in 4K on the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC. Now, this isn't to say that the GeForce RTX 5070 isn't capable at this resolution, but we see the average drop to a still-very-respectable 69 FPS.

Ultimately, gaming at 4K on the GeForce RTX 5070 is all about leveraging DLSS and even using the 'Performance' preset to hit a stable 60+ FPS in demanding titles like Assassin's Creed Shadows, Cyberpunk 2077, and DOOM: The Dark Ages. That said, it's still more than capable of pushing 110 FPS without DLSS with the 'Extreme' graphics preset in Forza Horizon 5. At this resolution, COLORFUL's overclocked model maintains its 30% lead over the previous-gen GeForce RTX 4070 and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB. However, at this resolution, the Radeon RX 9070 does increase its performance advantage.

Benchmarks - 3DMark Synthetic Tests

3DMark offers a suite of synthetic benchmarks built to test GPUs in various scenarios. 3DMark Steel Nomad is a cutting-edge DirectX 12 benchmark that uses modern rendering techniques to push GPUs to their limits. The 'Light' version tests at 1440p, while the main Steel Nomad benchmark tests pure native 4K rendering. Port Royal is a benchmark focused exclusively on real-time ray tracing for lighting effects, including reflections, shadows, and more.

3DMark's Steel Nomad was built to replicate the visual effects and rendering technologies used in the latest cinematic single-player games, such as Resident Evil: Requiem and Crimson Desert. When it comes to the 1440p and 4K synthetic benchmark scores for the GeForce RTX 5070, the results paint a slightly inflated picture of the sort of gains you can expect when comparing performance to the GeForce RTX 4070 and the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPUs. Here, COLORFUL's OC model delivers scores that are, on average, 45% higher than those of these cards, a result that doesn't quite line up with the 30% we saw when gaming. However, the scores do line up when comparing performance to the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and the Radeon RX 9070, with the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC scores coming in 20% and 7.5% lower, respectively.

58

The Port Royal results are a little more interesting, as they showcase just how much progress AMD has made with its new RDNA 4-powered Radeon RX 9000 Series. Here, the GeForce RTX 5070's score is actually lower than the Radeon RX 9070's, even though it's still around 40% higher than the GeForce RTX 4070 and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB. That said, even though the Port Royal benchmark is a hardware-intensive ray-tracing test, the results do not apply to modern ray-tracing titles with path-tracing support. NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 Series still has the edge, with the GeForce RTX 5070 outperforming the flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT, while offering a more comprehensive suite of AI-powered DLSS technologies to improve performance, fidelity, and smoothness.

Benchmarks - 1080p Gaming

Benchmarks - 1440p Gaming

Benchmarks - 4K Gaming

DLSS 4, Frame Generation, and Multi Frame Generation

DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation are impressive technologies, thanks mainly to improvements in performance and latency on the Multi Frame Generation side, as well as the new 'Transformer' model for Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction. We used the DLSS 'Quality' mode preset for these benchmarks, which delivers better-than-native image quality when compared to traditional AA methods like TAA.

58

Although Frame Generation is still relatively controversial, or at least a hot topic within the hardcore PC gaming community, it definitely has its benefits and use cases where it can be a game-changer. Interestingly, the cases where Frame Generation or Multi Frame Generation make the most sense are those where it's entirely optional. And that is when DLSS 4 or 4.5 Super Resolution delivers a baseline performance of at least 60 FPS, and you're gaming on a high-refresh-rate display. With Frame Generation or Multi Frame Generation, you get the smoothness, motion clarity, and immersive gaming experience at 120+ FPS, with the responsive controls you expect at 60+ FPS. For the GeForce RTX 5070, it's definitely something we recommend for playing games like Cyberpunk 2077 or DOOM: The Dark Ages at 1440p with ray tracing enabled.

Path Tracing Performance

Path Tracing, or Full Ray Tracing, arrived with the GeForce RTX 40 Series and DLSS 3 and is leveling up with the GeForce RTX 50 Series and DLSS 4. It's only possible thanks to AI technologies like DLSS Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, and RTX Neural Shader technology like RTX Mega Geometry. It's designed specifically for these technologies, and we're only including native or rasterized performance to highlight just how intensive it is on a mid-range GPU like the GeForce RTX 5070. In fact, aside from the massive performance boost, these games also look notably worse without DLSS 4.

For fans of cinematic visuals and cutting-edge graphics, path tracing is much more than a way to make a game's lighting look more natural or film-like. It enhances the immersive experience by adding a new layer of consistency and believability to every environment, whether indoors, outdoors, bathed in neon lights, or obscured in shadow. That said, while support is growing, path tracing remains relatively niche and limited to powerful GPUs like the GeForce RTX 5070. The RTX 5070 is probably the best 'mainstream' path tracing GPU on the market, as its performance eclipses the RDNA 4 flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT to deliver a solid 60 FPS experience in 1440p with DLSS Super Resolution, with that increasing to 100+ FPS with Frame Generation. In addition to Cyberpunk 2077 and DOOM: The Dark Ages, you can expect similar path tracing performance in Capcom's Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata.

Temperature and Power Efficiency

58

In addition to its funky design, the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC is impressively efficient and runs cool even when 'Turbo' mode is enabled. Even after adding another 100 or 150 MHz to the Boost Clock speed, GPU temperatures remained solidly in the 60-62°C range, with minimal noise. COLORFUL's OC model also idles at a remarkably low temperature while drawing very little power.

Final Thoughts

For those in the market for a GPU that excels at 1440p gaming while also being powerful enough to push things to 4K with DLSS, the GeForce RTX 5070 is certainly worth considering. Looking at the performance of the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC custom model, it's easy to see why the RTX 5070 is now one of the most popular cards on the market. And really, with so many options out there, model-wise, COLORFUL has still managed to create a model that stands out from the pack. The hip-hop-inspired look might not be for everyone, but if it clicks, it's definitely a looker. Ultimately, it's the overclocked performance, cooling, and efficiency that make it a standout.

58

It's also worth reiterating what DLSS brings to the table, too, with the new DLSS 4 and 4.5 versions of Super Resolution and Frame Generation opening the door to impressive path tracing performance on the RTX 5070 while also offering a free performance boost to over 400 games with DLSS Super Resolution support. When gaming at 1440p, the RTX 5070's sweet spot, it's enough to take advantage of some of the best displays on the market. The only real hurdle or stumbling block, which is affecting the entire industry, comes down to price, and just how close to the original $599 MSRP you can find one for.