Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is hardly the most power-hungry high-end graphics card ever introduced, yet manufacturers of add-in-boards equip such products with rather sophisticated cooling systems in a bid to maximize their overclocking potential and, to some degree, make them ‘look’ faster. Colorful seems to have outperformed its rivals in this regard, with a number of its GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (GA104-200, 4864 CUDA cores) offerings.
Just like other large suppliers of graphics cards, Colorful has multiple GeForce RTX 3060 Ti boards in its lineup. Most AIBs are equipped with a triple-fan, triple-slot cooling solutions, and feature two eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connectors that can deliver up to 300W of power to cards rated for an up to 240W thermal design power. In fact, Colorful has only one GeForce RTX 3060 Ti model with a dual-fan, dual-slot cooler (with a single eight-pin power connector).
Recently, Colorful started sales of perhaps its most stylish GeForce RTX 3060 Ti AIB: the iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ultra White OC. The product has two eight-pin power connectors and can boost up to 1770MHz (vs. 1665MHz recommended by Nvidia) in OC mode. The card comes with a triple fan, three-slot-wide cooling system featuring a matte white shroud with iridescent inlays that change colors depending on your viewing angle. Measuring a moderate (by today’s standards) 310×131.5×56 mm and weighing 1.1 kilograms, the board is still longer, taller, and thicker than Nvidia’s previous-generation flagship, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.
But the iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ultra White OC is not the most extreme GA104-200-based product in Colorful’s cadre. The company also has the iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Vulcan OC. This AIB has a completely revamped voltage regulating module featuring three eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connectors, which enable the card to boost the GPU to 1815MHz in OC mode, which seems to be the highest off-the-shelf frequency of a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti to date. The board measures 323×158×60 mm, which is actually longer than Nvidia’s dual-GPU GeForce 7900 GX2 from 2006 (312 mm), one of the longest graphics cards ever that was available only to OEMs.
Since supply of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs is tight in general and the availability of higher-end GeForce RTX 3070 (GA104-300) as well as GeForce RTX 3080/3090 (GA102-200-K1 and GA102-300) is insufficient, it is not surprising that makers of graphics cards are trying to address enthusiasts with cheaper graphics processors outfitted with advanced coolers. Quite naturally, such boards are more expensive to build than regular high-end products, so given the tight supply of GPUs as well as a high bill-of-materials cost, maxed-out GeForce RTX 3060 Ti AIBs are priced significantly higher than their $399 MSRP.