COLORFUL GeForce RTX 4090 iGame VULCAN OC mini-review

COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 4090 24GB Vulcan OC

The most powerful GeForce GPU made to date. 

Earlier this month, Colorful launched three RTX 4090 GPUs: Deluxe, Vulcan and Neptune. The iGame Vulcan is the premium design with an air cooler. We specifically requested this card for a test because we had already tested the predecessor. Therefore, we had a chance to see what improvements have Colorful made in 2 years.

In this mini-review, we will focus on the features and basic performance evaluation. We will test the card in synthetic tests, check 4K gaming performance and verify its overclocking potential. This is not a comprehensive review, but a brief look at the card.

The RTX 4090 is based on 4nm Ada Lovelace architecture. This model is equipped with AD102-300 GPU with 16384 CUDA cores. It ships with the same 24GB GDDR6X memory as the RTX 3090 Ti model. The card is equipped with a massive 3.5 slot design, and it weights 2.5 kg. This is one of the heaviest cards Colorful has ever made.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Specs
VideoCardz.com	Colorful RTX 4090 Vulcan OC	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 FE	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 FE
Founders Edition
Board-SKU	PG136-SKU330	PG136-SKU330	PG136-SKU360
Architecture	Ada (TSMC 4N)	Ada (TSMC 4N)	Ada (TSMC 4N)
GPU	AD102-300	AD102-300	AD103-300
SMs	128	128	76
CUDA Cores	16384	16384	9728
Boost Clock	2.625 GHz	2.5 GHz	2.5 GHz
Memory	24 GB G6X	24 GB G6X	16 GB G6X
Memory Bus	384-bit	384-bit	256-bit
Memory Speed	21 Gbps	21 Gbps	22.4 Gbps
Bandwidth	1008 GB/s	1008 GB/s	736 GB/s
Default TGP	515W	450W	320W
Max TGP	550W	600W	TBC
MSRP	1769 USD	1599 USD	1199 USD

Physical changes vs. RTX 3090 Vulcan

A quick look at the card itself, and the immediately impressions are good. It’s relatively a simple design with dark gray color scheme, full metallic backplate and minimal RGB lighting, compared to all Colorful models we tested (and there were many!).

What must be said is that this card is massive. Compared to RTX 3090 Vulcan, it is thicker, longer, heavier and has a much more sophisticated power delivery system.

• WIDTH: 15.8 cm → 15.9 cm
• LENGTH: 32.3 cm → 34.9 cm
• HEIGHT: 3-slot (60mm) → 3.5-slot (70.4 mm)
• WEIGHT:  2.1 kg → 2.5 kg
• POWER (VRM): 14+2+4 → 24+3+3

The card is equipped with four display connectors, three DP1.4a, and one HDMI 2.1 output. The card has 24GB of Micron D8BZ memory rated at 21 Gbps. The upgrade over RTX 4090 series is denser capacity, this model no longer requires dual-sided memory, and as a result, the backplate does not have any type of cooling.

Bundle

This card comes with a very interesting bundle. Apart from the 4x 8-pin to 16-pin power adapter, customers will also receive a VGA support bracket, a small screw driver and a small full-color screen. This screen is not pre-installed on the card itself, it can be removed and placed on a small, USB-powered holder. The screen attaches to the card by magnets and uses pogo-pins. Interestingly, it can be placed on the card either vertically or horizontally.

The card comes with NVIDIA standard power adapter for quad PCIe 8-pin to 16-pin connector. As for the screen, it seems to work fine, but official software has no support for it yet.

Testing platform

Performance

The graphics card outperforms any existing GeForce RTX 30 or Radeon RX 6000 model in all four popular 3DMark tests.

Games

Since RTX 4090 is performing so well, we decided there was no point in testing the card with low image quality or lower resolutions. Instead, we opted for testing the card with various super resolution technologies where available. Starting with Metro Exodus.

Overclocking

Colorful RTX 4090 iGame Vulcan has dual-BIOS feature. By default, it ships with 450W TDP setting, however users may choose 515W BIOS with support for 550W overclocking. With this BIOS, we were successful in adding an extra 185MHz to the GPU core clock and 1225 MHz for the memory. The card looses stability with any other settings.

The card seems to be capped up to 463W on average, as long as software sensors are considered. This overclocking results in 6% higher performance.

CONCLUSION

The RTX 4090 iGame Vulcan is a premium design with interesting features. A nice touch is the built-in screen that can be detached and replaced with an RGB illuminated part (called Vulcan Lightboard). The OC button will probably provide enough performance for most users without any manual overclocking involved.

Colorful’s new Vulcan design is a very heavy card, but it comes with a VGA support bracket for systems with standard horizontal installation. As we can see, we tested the card with vertical mount and PCIe riser on a relatively old system. Even with those limitations, performance was still great and matched other RTX 4090 cards in terms of raw synthetic performance.

We have not observed any power related issues with this model, in fact, it barely went over 500W which is the default power settings for the OC mode. The NVIDIA supplied cable has not shown any thermal issues (tested with thermal camera). The card is also equipped with a very efficient cooling solution. Throughout our testing we have rarely seen temperatures above 70°C and that’s including overclocking.

Colorful RTX 4090 iGame Vulcan OC has an official price at $1,769 which is $171 over NVIDIA MSRP. At this price, you get some extra bundles, such a screwdriver, VGA support bracket, 16-pin power adapter and, obviously the full color detachable screen.

Learn more about the product here.

COLORFUL GeForce RTX 4090 iGame VULCAN OC mini-review WhyCry

RTX 4090 iGame Vulcan OC ( )

Performance - 100  %

Cooling and Design - 100  %

Overclocking - 95  %

Price and Bundles - 90  %

Efficient cooler
Minimal RGB
Detachable full-color screen
Very heavy
MSRP $200 higher than NVIDIA's

96%