Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Vulcan X OC
2018Type
Graphics CardPrice
$1399.99 USColorful iGame GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Vulcan X OC Closer Look + Teardown
Colorful's iGame GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Vulcan X OC rocks one of the beefiest heatsink solutions that I have ever tested. The card measure in at 318x147 x59 mm and comes in a triple slot design which should be expected of this flagship option. Compared to some other cards that I have tested like the MSI Gaming X Trio and the ASUS ROG STRIX, the iGame Vulcan X OC is slightly shorter but has more width to it which is used by the magnitude of components on the card.
You would have to keep in mind the height when going for a dual card solution as your case or motherboard PCIe slot combination may not allow such setup. The cooling shroud extends all the way to the back of the PCB and it requires a casing with good interior space for proper installation.
The back of the card features a solid backplate which looks stunning and offers a premium look. There's a lot of nifty features about this backplate which I will come back to shortly.
In terms of design, we are looking at an updated version of the SWORIZER 2.0 series heatsink which is now in its seventh variation. The first SWORIZER based graphics card shipped last year with the iGame GeForce RTX 10 Vulcan X series but the new heatsink has been improved in many ways compared to its predecessor.
The new heatsink looks like a more sleeker variant of the previous SWORIZER with the main changes being the shroud and heatsink design. In addition to the heatsink and shroud changes, you also get a slight bit of RGB in the new shroud which is compliant with iGame Zone II RGB Fusion lighting system and is fully user-customizable.
Coming to the fans, the card actually features two different fan designs which utilize the Unique SAW Sickle Blade design. There are actually small shark fins curved into the main blade which increases the total volume of air being pushed by 7% and increases air pressure by up to 15%.
There are three Saw Sickle fans on the shroud which make use of a dual ball bearing design and are guaranteed to deliver 70,000 hours of working life.
The fans are fully compliant with the Auto Stop fan technology which will allow the fans to stay in idle mode until the temps exceed a certain threshold. This threshold is based on both the GPU load and the temperatures, allowing for smooth and quiet operation under lower application loads.
I am back at talking about the full-coverage, full metal-based backplate which both card use. The whole plate is made of solid metal with rounded edges that add to the durability of this card. The matte black finish on the backplate gives a unique aesthetic.
There are small cutouts in screw placements to easily reach the points on the graphics card. There are open vents for the hot air to move out from the back too. We can also see the iGame logo in the back. Not only does the logo support RGB LEDs but there's an additional cut out to the front which also rocks RGB LEDs. Colorful is using heat pads on the bottom of the PCB to ensure better thermals and you can also note a nice black textured iGame name etched on the back of the plate.
Gone is SLI and now we have the latest NVLINK gold finger connectors. The RTX 2080 comes with a single NVLINK connector which allows for 2-Way multi-GPU functionality. The RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 are the only cards to support NVLINK connectivity so multi-GPU is only for the high-end spectrum of cards and for good reason. Only these cards have enough bandwidth that can drive another GPU of their tier as anything below wouldn't have the power to interlink to the other card.
A single x8 NVLINK channel provides 25 GB/s peak bandwidth. There are two x8 links on the TU102 GPU and a single x8 link on the Turing TU104 GPU. The TU102 GPU features 50 GB/s of bandwidth in parallel and 100 GB/s bandwidth bi-directionally. Using NVLINK on high-end cards would be beneficial in high-resolution gaming but there’s a reason NVIDIA still restricts users from doing 3 and 4 way SLI.
Multi-GPU still isn’t optimized so you won’t see much benefits unless you are running the highest end graphics cards. That’s another reason why the RTX 2070 is deprived of NVLINK connectors. The NVLINK connectors cost $79 US each and are sold separately. Currently, only NVIDIA is selling them as the AIB cards don’t include any such connectors but that may change once the standard is adopted widely.
With the outsides of the card done, I will now start taking a glance at what's beneath the hood of these monster graphics cards. The first thing to catch my eye is the huge fin stack that's part of the beefy heatsink which the cards utilize.
Talking about the heatsink, the massive block is a combination of three separate aluminum fins array blocks which are connected through 6 heat pipes.
The base of the heatsink is made of nickel-plated copper design and acts as a vapor chamber to offer higher heat dissipation from the GPU. You can also note various thermal heat pads across the heatsink which make contact with the memory dies, the VRM and MOSFETs.
The Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Vulcan X OC comes with a massive factory overclock out of the box. Being so, it uses a triple 8 Pin connector configuration. There's no official TDP which is mentioned by Colorful but those three 8 pin connectors alone can sip in 450W of power.
I/O on the graphics card sticks with the reference scheme which includes three Display Port 1.4a, a single HDMI 2.0b and a single USB Type-C port for VirtualLink connectivity to high-end HMD (Head Mounted Displays).
Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Vulcan X OC Series PCB Teardown
Colorful makes use of a 16+3 phase PWM design that includes high-end I.P.P certified components with silver plating technology. The cards also use the MT61K256M32JE-14: A GDDR6 memory from Micron that operates at 14 Gbps along a 352-bit wide memory interface.
Following are a few close-up shots of the reference PCB which is being offered under the hood of the Gaming OC series graphics cards.
Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Vulcan X OC Series RGB Lighting and LCD Gallery
Colorful iGame Vulcan X OC series cards utilize their iGame Zone II software technology to offer you a visually pleasing lighting experience on your graphics cards. There are multiple LED zones which you can configure with the main highlights being the front shroud and the backplate.
Following is what the graphics card looks like when lit up.
Similarly to the RGB Lighting, you can use the iGame Zone II application to customize the side LCD which can display various details of the cards through real-time monitoring. Or if you are more of the creative type, you can upload your own custom text, picture or GIF to the full-color LCD which stands out from the rest.
Contents
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Colorful has made one of the best custom and fastest factory overclocked graphics card in the market which rocks a unique design scheme and a full-color LCD that looks impressive. Their iGame RTX 2080 Ti Vulcan X OC propels forward with the latest solution, offering amazing gaming performance to those who can buy it.
- One of the fastest GeForce RTX 2080 Ti models available right now
- Stellar gaming performance at the 4K resolution
- Great upgrade from GTX 1080 Ti and GTX 1080
- Factory Overclocked Out of Box (Up To 1820 MHz With Turbo BIOS)
- SWORIZER 2.0 Cooling System With Triple Saw Sickle Blade Fans
- Enhanced LCD Display with full-color customization (GIFs, Pics, Text)
- Auto Stop Fan Technology Included on Saw Sickle fans
- A stunning design that resembles a tie fighter from Star Wars
- Great overclocking potential, full tuning options
- Memory modules on the Vulcan X OC can hit more than 750 GB/s bandwidth
- Backplate includes heat pads for increased heat dissipation
- RGB Lighting support on the shroud and back look stunning
- Support for real-time ray tracing and DLSS features in next-generation gaming titles
- Good driver support for GeForce products, compatibility with DX11, DX12, Vulkan, OpenGL titles
- Lot's of display connectivity, great for VR and multi-display PCs.
Pros
- Ridiculously High Priced ($1399.99 US)
- Very high power consumption when overclocked
- Very few DLSS and RTX titles available right now
Cons
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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