TechRadar Verdict
For gamers looking for a stylish GPU, the Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3050 Ultra W Duo OC 8G is a great pick and delivers enough performance to get you going with the latest games with ease. Availability in the market might depend heavily on your location, which is a bit disappointing.
Pros
- +
Great looking card
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Quiet and cool performance
- +
Will fit in most PC builds
Cons
- -
Might not be available in major markets
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Overclocking doesn’t yield a big difference
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One-minute review
The RTX GPU market is still a problematic one with demand far surpassing supply, leading to staggering prices. In a hope to alleviate this – and make RTX cards more accessible to budget gamers – the RTX 3050 was launched. We’ve looked at the card previously and found that it’s a great option for gamers who want all the advantages that come with Nvidia’s RTX cards, but on a much more affordable budget.
Colorful’s iGame GeForce RTX 3050 card is one to consider if you’re looking for a stylish GPU that delivers worthwhile performance. It’s on par with other RTX 3050 cards we’ve reviewed before and has the added advantage of simple overclocking to squeeze a few extra frames. However, its higher price tag may not necessarily justify this overclocking feature, as the RTX 3050 chip isn’t really geared towards overclocking enthusiasts.
Price point aside, the iGame GeForce RTX 3050 is one of the best-looking RTX 3050 cards we’ve seen yet and will be a great fit if you want a cheaper GPU that still looks great. It’s able to crank out enough performance for smooth 1080p gaming, while staying cool and quiet in most PC builds.
Price and availability
The iGame GeForce RTX 3050 is available now, priced at $409.
That puts it on the higher end of RTX 3050 prices, given the $249 price tag that Nvidia original set for this GPU. You’re certainly paying extra for a slightly beefier cooling solution that is required for this GPU. If looks are what you’re after, then this is the GPU to get – if not, you’re bound to have cheaper alternatives in the market.
Design
The first thing that strikes you about the iGame GeForce RTX 3050 is its nearly all-white look. The front of the card features two large 90mm fans set in a matte white case, with a blue-purple gradient effect applied on one section. A yellow accent strip with the company’s logo starts from the front of the card and tapers all the way to the back, almost mimicking a ‘caution’ tape. There’s a black GeForce RTX logo at the back of the card, and that’s it – no fancy RGB effects here apart from a glowing logo.
Connectivity-wise you have one HDMI port and three DisplayPort connections, as well as Colorful’s one-button overclocking feature, which boosts the card’s base frequency from 1,552MHz to 1,822Mhz. This makes it easier to overclock the GPU for resource-intense games, while veteran gamers can opt to do this manually via the bundled software as well.
The card requires one 8-pin connector to run, and measures 253 x 129.2 x 45.6mm. It’s a dual-slot GPU that’s small enough to fit into most PC cases, included small form factor rigs. Despite its size, you’ll still be getting all the benefits of the more powerful RTX cards, including Nvidia DLSS, G-Sync, Ray Tracing, and more.
Performance
Here's how the iGame GeForce RTX 3050 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
Time Spy Extreme: 6785
Fire Strike Ultra: 3611
Port Royal: 3598
Metro Exodus (High, 1080p): 51fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1080p): 87fps
Total War: Three Kingdoms (1080p): 63fps
When it came to performance, the iGame GeForce RTX 3050 was able to hold its own in synthetic as well as real-world benchmarking. Shadow of the Tomb Raider saw great results with butter-smooth gameplay, and we saw similar performance in games like Overwatch and Destiny 2.
Things did struggle slightly in Metro Exodus with framerates mostly staying at 50fps on average, while in Cyberpunk 2077 we had the game running at around 43fps. You can get smoother framerates if you drop some in-game effects and detailing, but majority of our games ran quite well with little performance issues.
The one-button overclock is a nice feature but doesn’t make much of a difference for gaming. We were at most able to only squeeze an additional 5fps in some games, which hardly seems worth it. In fact, you may as well run the card in overclocked mode all the time, just to have those extra few frames from the get-go. As per Colorful’s recommendation, you should only enable or disable the overclocking when the PC is off.
Temperatures were mostly good, with the card registering around 33C on idle and hitting 61C at peak usage. The fans don’t make too much noise at all, so the card is able to stay nice and cool in a variety of PC cases.
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
