INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Competition has always been good for the end consumer and nowhere in the PC industry has this applied more than graphics cards. Yes, we recently had AMD surpass Intel in the CPU market with their pretty impressive Ryzen 5000 series but the number of times AMD CPUs have taken on Intel models simply pales in comparison with the number of times AMD (ATI prior to that) graphics cards have gone up against NVIDIA ones (for the record this has been happening since the mid-90's). It so happens that we're currently witnessing yet another "strong" competition between AMD and NVIDIA, this time between their Radeon RX6x00 and GeForce RTX 30x0 lines which currently include high and ultra-high-end models. Since the market is vast however both manufacturers have now turned their focus to the mid-end (value) segment of the market and today I’ll be testing the just released GeForce RTX 3060 12GB and more specifically the iGame Advanced OC model by Colorful.

   Established in 1995, Colorful is a brand with a 20+ year history. It is a comprehensive company that holds the largest share in the Chinese graphics card market, integrating independent development, production, and sales. Also, it is a strategic partner of NVIDIA, AMD, and INTEL in China. By now, Colorful covers product line of motherboards, graphics cards, all-in-one PC, memory & SSD, industrial server, computer case, power supply, Hi-Fi player, industrial integration solution and services with over 24 years of experience delivering quality products garnering a brilliant reputation amongst its customers.

   Just like the rest of the GeForce RTX 30x0 family the newest member (GeForce RTX 3060) is also based on the 2nd generation of NVIDIA's RTX technology which this time over features CUDA cores with FP32+INT32 instructions (for simultaneous floating point and integer math), 2nd gen RT cores, 3rd gen Tensor cores and ray trace motion-blur effects. Unlike however its brother the RTX 3060 Ti the new RTX 3060 is based on the brane new GA106 GPU (8nm) which packs 3584 shader units, 112 texture mapping units, 112 Tensor cores, 48 raster operators and 28 ray tracing cores. Also, the GeForce RTX 3060 has a TDP of 170W and comes packed with 12GB of Samsung GDDR6 RAM based on a 192-bit memory bus and with an effective clock speed of 15Gbps. As for the iGame Advanced OC model by Colorful it comes ready with a factory overclocked boost clock of 1867MHz (you can also use the stock 1777MHz clocks - RAM clocks however remain the same), custom cooling solution (triple fan, dual heatsink design with four 8mm thick heatpipes, copper base and support for zero RPM mode when in idle), reinforced metal frame, one-key overclock button (1777MHz to 1867MHz), rear backplate and RGB LEDs for the main fan (11 effects). Finally, in terms of available outputs the iGame GeForce RTX 3060 12GB comes ready with 3 DP v1.4 ports and a single HDMI v2.1 port (these support a total of 2 displays simultaneously with resolutions of up to 8K/7680x4320p). So, time to see how the latest GeForce RTX 3060 performs.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A large picture of the card is placed at the front of the box along with the model line, available RAM and main features.

 

 

The serial number and barcodes are printed on a sticker located on the left side.

 

 

Colorful talks both about the NVIDIA Ampere technology and the main product features at the rear of the box.

 

 

The card is wrapped in a static-free bag and placed inside a formed piece of black foam.

 

 

Aside the iGame RTX 3060 Advanced OC inside the box Colorful also packs a screwdriver (two tips), fabric gloves, product quality certification, paper with the company logo and a quick start guide.

 

 

THE IGAME GEFORCE RTX 3060 ADVANCED OC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Advanced OC by Colorful is a long card that measures roughly 315mm in length.

 

 

Colorful has used a tri-fan design all of which spin counter clockwise.

 

 

Only the center fan however is part of the cards RGB lighting system.

 

 

This card uses two heatsinks with four 8mm thick heatpipes going through all of them (strangely enough even though the card has VGA holder mounting holes that holder is not included in the package).

 

 

The iGame logo at the top of the card is also RGB illuminated.

 

 

Unlike other RTX 3060 models the iGame RTX 3060 Advanced OC requires two 8pin PCIe power connectors.

 

 

As expected from such a card the rear is covered with an aluminum backplate.

 

 

At the front of the card, we find the Turbo button (switches between default and OC clocks), 3 DP v1.4 ports and a single HDMI v2.1 port.

 

 

IGAME CENTER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just like all brands Colorful has their very own "tuning" software called the iGame Center which on the first tab displays information on your CPU, RAM, network and graphics card.

 

 

Inside the 2nd tab Colorful has placed everything in regards to overclocking and fan control.

 

 

There are two tabs in regards to RGB lighting, the Light Setting one which is just for the card and has 8 effects and the general tab which allows you to "link" the card with the RGB of other system components (didn't work with my X299 AORUS GAMING 9 however).

 

 

Last page monitors everything from fan speeds and VRM load to temperatures and frequencies.

 

 

Here you can see a few of the colors while using some of the effects.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Since we'll be using our latest test rig with our graphics cards tests, we also moved to another screen (Philips BDM4037UW) in order to also offer 4k Ultra HD tests. Of course, 2160p (3840x2160p) is not the only resolution we'll be testing cards with, we are also going to be testing them at 1080p Full HD (1920x1080p) and 1440p (2560x1440p). Also, because far too many gamers own Ultra-Wide screens at first i wanted to use our AOC AGON AG352UCG monitor in order to also have its resolution of 3440x1440p in our charts but since it's plugged into our other test rig several meters away from this one i really had to choose (and 4k seemed like the better choice). This time over we also updated the list of benchmarks/games to include the Time Spy benchmark by UL, Assassin's Creed Odyssey by Ubisoft, Devil May Cry 5 by Capcom, Dreadnought by Yager, GEARS 5 by The Coalition, Metro Exodus by 4A Games, Star Citizen by Cloud Imperium Games, The Outer Worlds by Obsidian Entertainment and Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Project*.

   As with the past options like power saving, sharpness and overlays are all disabled in the cards we’re testing (to achieve maximum performance) and all tests are repeated a total of 3 times in a fresh Windows 10 Pro installation with all updates installed until the day of our review (same as all the games used). Room temperature is as usual controlled and steady at 23 degrees Celsius for all tests and to record the temperatures of the cards we used AIDA64 and GPU-Z. Recording noise levels is done with an ExTech HD600 dBA meter from a distance of no more than half a meter away (exterior of case) while power consumption is measured again using GPU-Z.

* Since February 2021

 

 

TEST RESULTS – CYBERPUNK 2077

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cyberpunk 2077 is the latest game by CD Project and is based on their REDEngine 4. Benchmarks were run on game version 1.12 with all settings set at High and with the help of Rivatuner Statistics Server.

 

TEST RESULTS - 3DMARK TIMESPY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Spy was added in 3DMark back in 2016 with only 1 simple goal, to test the graphics of systems with Windows 10 and DirectX 12. Time Spy was used at default settings.

 

TEST RESULTS - ASSASSINS CREED ODYSSEY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is an action role-playing video game set in the year 431 BC and the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and is based on the AnvilNext engine. For our tests we use the built-in benchmark of the game with FPS limit off, V-Sync off and the graphics set at high quality (because Assassins Creed Odyssey auto-detects your graphics card and sets settings accordingly the same graphics quality needs to be set manually every time).

 

TEST RESULTS - BORDERLANDS 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Borderlands 3 is an action role-playing first-person shooter video game released back in late 2019 and is powered by Unreal Engine 4. Borderlands 3 has a very basic built-in benchmark which we set at DirectX 12 with unlimited frame rate and overall quality set to High.

 

TEST RESULTS - DEVIL MAY CRY 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devil May Cry 5 is an action-adventure hack and slash video game released in March 2019 and is based on the RE Engine like other titles by Capcom. Devil May Cry 5 doesn't feature his very own built-in benchmark so for that purpose we're using the latest version of Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync Off, variable frame rate and all graphics settings set at High.

 

TEST RESULTS - DREADNOUGHT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dreadnought is a space combat simulation game released for the PC in late 2018 and is the 3rd game in our tests based on the Unreal Engine 4. Dreadnought used to come with its own built-in benchmark but since that was removed, we decided to use Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync off and graphics set to High (this game is capped after all so I removed that and did all tests again – unfortunately I no longer have all the cards here).

 

TEST RESULTS - GEARS 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gears 5 is a third-person shooter video game released back in mid-2019 and is powered by Unreal Engine 4 just like Borderlands 3. Gears 5 features a very convenient (not to mention fast) built-in benchmark which we use with V-Sync off, unlimited frame rate (none for minimum) and Ultra graphics quality.

 

TEST RESULTS - METRO EXODUS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game released in 2019 and is based on the 4A Engine. The latest game in the Metro series also features its very own benchmark utility which we set at DirectX 12 and Ultra graphics quality (we're also running RTX tests with that setting set at Ultra).

 

 

TEST RESULTS - STAR CITIZEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Star Citizen is an upcoming multiplayer space trading and combat game the main development of which started back in 2012 and is currently based on the Lumberyard game engine. Not only does Star Citizen come without any built-in benchmark (or utility) but it’s still in Alpha status meaning that this is not the most stable game title to use for our benchmarks (numerous graphics optimisations are expected between now and launch day). Still, we wanted to have it in our charts for anyone interested and so we did by using Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync turned off and the graphics set at High.

 

TEST RESULTS - THE OUTER WORLDS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outer Worlds is an action role-playing game released back in late 2019 and is also based on the Unreal Engine 4. The Outer Worlds is yet another title we had to use Rivatuner Statistics Server with V-Sync off, unlimited frame rate and graphics set at Very High.

 

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCKING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving from the 1867MHz of the stock OC to 2067MHz was not something i thought possible but it did work and so did moving from the stock speed of 1875MHz to 2125MHz for the RAM (this however was expected since these RAM modules are certified for speeds up to 16Gbps - all the other cards in these charts are also overclocked).

 

TEST RESULTS - POWER CONSUMPTION / TEMPERATURES / NOISE LEVELS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   The GeForce RTX 3060 was designed with a single goal in mind, to take over the mid-end segment of the market and considering that it does a very good job surpassing both its predecessor the GeForce RTX 2060 (by a large amount at that) and in large part even the Radeon RX 5700XT (at least in more tests) I think it accomplishes exactly that. Power consumption is also surprisingly good and compared to the sole RTX2060 that I’ve reviewed in the past (ASUS ROG STRIX OC) it’s actually reduced by just shy of 20W. Same applies for noise levels so unless the fans of the the iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Advanced OC surpass 60-65% things are actually very quiet (they did however surpass that percentage twice during my tests so I had to include that number). Overclocking headroom is very good and delivers a nice boost in performance across the board. As expected, RT performance is far from stellar but again not nearly as reduced as the RX6800 I reviewed a couple of weeks back (percentage-wise). Still AMD is working on something so I wouldn’t be surprised if with their next line (RX7x00) they are able to match NVIDIA’s RT performance (from my next review I’ll be also including 3DMark RT tests – i was going to include Cyberpunk 2077 RT benchmarks but it doesn’t seem to allow that feature with Radeon cards).

   Unlike other members of the GeForce RTX 3x00 family a “failsafe” put in place by NVIDIA in the bios of the RTX 3060 renders it really bad at mining (up to 50% reduced performance) and so that means stock should hold, at least a lot more compared to the other models. Unfortunately, at the time of this review the iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Advanced OC by Colorful is not available in the USA and the EU but judging from what other manufacturers ask at launch i expect it to make an appearance in the 400-450$ range (will update this review when availability improves). Overall the brand new RTX 3060 represents very good value for money and that applies even more for the iGame Advanced OC model by Colorful with its very good overclocking headroom and that’s also primarily why it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Backplate / Reinforced Metal Frame)
- Price / Performance Ratio
- Factory Overclock (OC Button)
- Very Good Overclocking Headroom (Two 8pin PCIe Power Connectors)
- Noise Levels / Power Consumption / Temperatures
- Looks (RGB System)
- Supported Technologies (2nd Generation Real Time Ray Tracing & Deep Learning Super Sampling)

CONS

- Support Bracket Not Included
- Size (3 Slot Card)
- Reduced Mining Performance (For Some)