iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

[passatgt]

Well, the CPU works(870s), but the GPU is a no go so far Its a K1100M N15P-Q1-A2 1GB GDDR5. Maybe because its a 1gb card, not a 2gb? I just checked and @Roman78 had a 2gb card that was working. I'm also unable to find a 1gb bios on techpowerup, so its possible that this card is a no-go.

 

[hyungju]

21,5 imac you want to install a mxm-b card, grab a compatible quadro k1100/2000m

About the cou upgrade don't know, but why not go for s 870s i think that is compatible..
Xeon could also be compatible i dont know.
[doublepost=1565108043][/doublepost]

There are several ways to install macos.
Easy way i would say, install high sierra on a smal partition, so with a pram you can always boot back into hs.
Create a seperste partition for mojave or other macos you want to install.
You still boot of external drives like usb sticks etc. while using startup utility.

I would personaly also create a small 8gb partition with a macos installer on it, this way you always boot into an installer of macos.

xeon one is much cheaper than 870s or 860s but with a minor clock difference.
I will comment about it when cpu arrives
[doublepost=1565132173][/doublepost]

Well, the CPU works(870s), but the GPU is a no go so far Its a K1100M N15P-Q1-A2 1GB GDDR5. Maybe because its a 1gb card, not a 2gb? I just checked and @Roman78 had a 2gb card that was working. I'm also unable to find a 1gb bios on techpowerup, so its possible that this card is a no-go.

I haven't seen someone tried 870s(higher tdp) and upgraded GPU.
may be the power problem because i7 takes more power than original i3, i5 processors ?

Does it boot up and just shuts down within 1 sec?

 

[deevey]

Could a HD 7650A 2gb be another metal supported option for 2010 iMacs ?

 

[passatgt]

xeon one is much cheaper than 870s or 860s but with a minor clock difference.
I will comment about it when cpu arrives
[doublepost=1565132173][/doublepost]

I haven't seen someone tried 870s(higher tdp) and upgraded GPU.
may be the power problem because i7 takes more power than original i3, i5 processors ?

Does it boot up and just shuts down within 1 sec?

No, the fans spin, but no boot sound. It boots up with the original gpu that has a higher tdp, so i don't think its a power issue. I think the problem is that this is not a dell card. I would try a dell bios, but i can't find a 1gb version on techpowerup.

 

[FlorisVN]

No, the fans spin, but no boot sound. It boots up with the original gpu that has a higher tdp, so i don't think its a power issue. I think the problem is that this is not a dell card. I would try a dell bios, but i can't find a 1gb version on techpowerup.

not all vbios roms have been dumped on places on the web unfortunately.
make sure you have a good known compatible card, before you try it..

 

[passatgt]

not all vbios roms have been dumped on places on the web unfortunately.
make sure you have a good known compatible card, before you try it..

I bought a 2gb dell card now, hopefully that will work. To be honest i wasn't even paying attention that this was a 1gb card. I think this is for an HP, and that vbios is not compatible with the iMac, only the dell versions. I was able to find a 2gb HP card too and i think the bios can be replaced with the dell one, but the card layout is not 100% identical, so i bought the slightly more expensive dell one now.

 

[marmalito]

Has anyone figured out a way to install Windows using Boot Camp after swapping the GPU?

 

[ericthetrip]

Hi there,

I have an 2011 27" Imac with the ATI 2GB GPU. I'm thinking about upgrading to a Nvidia GTX 780M 4GB.
Did anyone made it work properly (with boot screen and brightness control),or it is impossible for now?
Does it fit properly on the slot/heat sink?
Does it work natively with the macos mojave or it needs to be patched?
Thank you

 

[passatgt]

Hi there,

I have an 2011 27" Imac with the ATI 2GB GPU. I'm thinking about upgrading to a Nvidia GTX 780M 4GB.
Did anyone made it work properly (with boot screen and brightness control),or it is impossible for now?
Does it fit properly on the slot/heat sink?
Does it work natively with the macos mojave or it needs to be patched?
Thank you

Impossible now to have boot screen and hardware+software brightness control.
Heatsink needs to be modified a little
The card is supported by Mojave natively, but you still need to use the mojave patcher to do the install. Same with Catalina.

 

[ericthetrip]

Impossible now to have boot screen and hardware+software brightness control.
Heatsink needs to be modified a little
The card is supported by Mojave natively, but you still need to use the mojave patcher to do the install. Same with Catalina.

I'm going to think about it... is it the same with the GTX 980M?
Thank you very much

 

[FlorisVN]

I'm going to think about it... is it the same with the GTX 980M?
Thank you very much

So far gtx980m is not compatible with the iMac, nor with macos Mojave and up.
I would advise you to upgrade to a known compatible nvidia card.

 

[dondrapersf]

Hi there,

I have an 2011 27" Imac with the ATI 2GB GPU. I'm thinking about upgrading to a Nvidia GTX 780M 4GB.
Did anyone made it work properly (with boot screen and brightness control),or it is impossible for now?
Does it fit properly on the slot/heat sink?
Does it work natively with the macos mojave or it needs to be patched?
Thank you

you can try a dell alienware 860m nvidia card. it works for me. its faster than 780m

 

[ericthetrip]

you can try a dell alienware 860m nvidia card. it works for me. its faster than 780m

Thank you for you're suggestion. Does it work with the boot screen?

 

[jmilan0302]

Thank you for you're suggestion. Does it work with the boot screen?

Nothing works with the bootscreen for now. There was someone working on a 765M BIOS but we haven't heard anything of that for months now.

 

[ericthetrip]

Nothing works with the bootscreen for now. There was someone working on a 765M BIOS but we haven't heard anything of that for months now.

Thank you.
I was wondering... is it possible to have metal support using a egpu? and if so, can we run the patched version of macos mojave without and compatibility problems?

 

[Ove K]

Hi, my 27" iMac from 2011 don't work anymore and after three times baking my graphic card, i think it is time for an upgrade.
Is there a way to see if i will buy the right card? I see used cards for "clevo alienware". Should anyone work or must it be definitely a "DELL Alienware" without "clevo" Version?

And i read many sites here. But i'm asking me, what is the best solution.
First i want a GTX765m, because it is cheap and i think it don't get so hot. Now i see a GTX860m for a good price. It would be faster, but would it be to hot for the small iMac case? Or will it run fine for a longer time without burning anything away? I don't want to play games with the iMac. Only Lightroom, Photoshop, a little bit Cinema 4d.

Should this GTX860m work? Thank you all and sorry for my english. I'm from Germany.

 

[passatgt]

Hi, my 27" iMac from 2011 don't work anymore and after three times baking my graphic card, i think it is time for an upgrade.
Is there a way to see if i will buy the right card? I see used cards for "clevo alienware". Should anyone work or must it be definitely a "DELL Alienware" without "clevo" Version?

And i read many sites here. But i'm asking me, what is the best solution.
First i want a GTX765m, because it is cheap and i think it don't get so hot. Now i see a GTX860m for a good price. It would be faster, but would it be to hot for the small iMac case? Or will it run fine for a longer time without burning anything away? I don't want to play games with the iMac. Only Lightroom, Photoshop, a little bit Cinema 4d.

Should this GTX860m work? Thank you all and sorry for my english. I'm from Germany.

Dell Alienware works best i think. The vard looks fine. If the bios is not good, you can always replace it with an alienware from techpowerup. But it looks fine.

 

[passatgt]

So, the 2gb k1100m works. Here is how the card looks:

No issues with i7 870S + k1100M. Run some benchmarks too:

Cinebench R20 - 194 -> 397
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test - 107/99 -> 454/515
Geekbench: https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/14277043 /
https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/compute/4428630
Novabench - 226 -> 349

Interestingly i wasn't able to run Heaven or Valley benchmarks, because it gave me very little scores and for some reason it recognised it as a 256mb card... But i think the card works fine. Any idea how can i test it to make sure?
Chrome runs 4k youtube almost perfectly(i noticed some frame drops, but very minimal).

Edit: i installed the nvidia web drivers, but i see the same results for both geekbench compute and valley. Can someone please check and tell me the scores? The system itself feels fine bit i think somethings wrong. Should i try with Mojave?

 

[Ove K]

Dell Alienware works best i think. The vard looks fine. If the bios is not good, you can always replace it with an alienware from techpowerup. But it looks fine.

Thank you. Now i know, that the card ist new and from Clevo. VBios:80.04.E9.00.03
Will it work and should i buy it? I think it is the same Firmware like the Dell version.

Would it be possible to flash the card inside the iMac if it is the wrong firmware? I don`t have access to another computer with mxm.

GPU Device Id: 0x10DE 0x119A
Version: 80.04.E9.00.03
GK104 P2053 SKU 004 VGA BIOS (HWDIAG).
Copyright (C) 1996-2013 NVIDIA Corp.
GK104 Board - 20530004
GPU power limit
Target: 75.0 W
Limit: 75.0 W
Adj. Range: -100%, +0%
Thermal limits
Rated: 92.0C
Max: 93.0C
Memory Support
GDDR5, Elpida
GDDR5, Hynix
GDDR5, Samsung
GDDR5, Qimonda
Performance Level 0
Core Clk: 324.00 MHz
Mem Clk: 162.00 MHz
Performance Level 1
Core Clk: 797.00 MHz
Mem Clk: 405.00 MHz
Performance Level 2
Core Clk: 797.00 MHz
Mem Clk: 1000.00 MHz
Performance Level 3
Core Clk: 797.00 MHz
Mem Clk: 1250.00 MHz
Boost clocks
P0 Boost: 915.00 MHz
P0 Base: 797.00 MHz

Same Bios: Dell GTX 860M, NVIDIA GTX 860M

 

[FlorisVN]

Hi, my 27" iMac from 2011 don't work anymore and after three times baking my graphic card, i think it is time for an upgrade.
Is there a way to see if i will buy the right card? I see used cards for "clevo alienware". Should anyone work or must it be definitely a "DELL Alienware" without "clevo" Version?

And i read many sites here. But i'm asking me, what is the best solution.
First i want a GTX765m, because it is cheap and i think it don't get so hot. Now i see a GTX860m for a good price. It would be faster, but would it be to hot for the small iMac case? Or will it run fine for a longer time without burning anything away? I don't want to play games with the iMac. Only Lightroom, Photoshop, a little bit Cinema 4d.

Should this GTX860m work? Thank you all and sorry for my english. I'm from Germany.

Just stick with a compatible dell/alienware card to keep it simple.
Others are not known working oob, as far as I know.

 

[WaferGuy]

Hi,

I baked the HD 6970M card 2 years ago. Since then, the 2011 27" iMac is not heavily used as primary computer.

From page 1 of this thread, I know that compatible MXM cards are 765M, 770M, 780M & 860M. But there are few caveats to live with.

After HD 6970M, AMD has made newer MXM-B cards with Mac Editions (R9 M295X, R9 M395 & R9 M395X). Put aside price, are they compatible with 2011 iMac?

Anyone try this route?

 

[wa9im]

Hi,

I baked the HD 6970M card 2 years ago. Since then, the 2011 27" iMac is not heavily used as primary computer.

From page 1 of this thread, I know that compatible MXM cards are 765M, 770M, 780M & 860M. But there are few caveats to live with.

After HD 6970M, AMD has made newer MXM-B cards with Mac Editions (R9 M295X, R9 M395 & R9 M395X). Put aside price, are they compatible with 2011 iMac?

Anyone try this route?

R9 m395x -It's not working

 

[FlorisVN]

Hi,

I baked the HD 6970M card 2 years ago. Since then, the 2011 27" iMac is not heavily used as primary computer.

From page 1 of this thread, I know that compatible MXM cards are 765M, 770M, 780M & 860M. But there are few caveats to live with.

After HD 6970M, AMD has made newer MXM-B cards with Mac Editions (R9 M295X, R9 M395 & R9 M395X). Put aside price, are they compatible with 2011 iMac?

Anyone try this route?

Im not sure, but i think rx560

Hi,

I baked the HD 6970M card 2 years ago. Since then, the 2011 27" iMac is not heavily used as primary computer.

From page 1 of this thread, I know that compatible MXM cards are 765M, 770M, 780M & 860M. But there are few caveats to live with.

After HD 6970M, AMD has made newer MXM-B cards with Mac Editions (R9 M295X, R9 M395 & R9 M395X). Put aside price, are they compatible with 2011 iMac?

Anyone try this route?

In my opinion caveats, will stay.
You can only live best withouth caveats in my opinion if you have an Apple EFI flashed vbios on them, to get the EFI bootscreen.
I also think most AMD MXM cards could need heatsink modificatie aswell, just like the compatible Nvidia cards.

I would say just upgrade to a known compatible Dell/Alienware Nvidia card.
It's the best you can do for the moment, in my opinion..
[doublepost=1565967023][/doublepost]

Thank you. Now i know, that the card ist new and from Clevo. VBios:80.04.E9.00.03
Will it work and should i buy it? I think it is the same Firmware like the Dell version.

Would it be possible to flash the card inside the iMac if it is the wrong firmware? I don`t have access to another computer with mxm.

GPU Device Id: 0x10DE 0x119A
Version: 80.04.E9.00.03
GK104 P2053 SKU 004 VGA BIOS (HWDIAG).
Copyright (C) 1996-2013 NVIDIA Corp.
GK104 Board - 20530004
GPU power limit
Target: 75.0 W
Limit: 75.0 W
Adj. Range: -100%, +0%
Thermal limits
Rated: 92.0C
Max: 93.0C
Memory Support
GDDR5, Elpida
GDDR5, Hynix
GDDR5, Samsung
GDDR5, Qimonda
Performance Level 0
Core Clk: 324.00 MHz
Mem Clk: 162.00 MHz
Performance Level 1
Core Clk: 797.00 MHz
Mem Clk: 405.00 MHz
Performance Level 2
Core Clk: 797.00 MHz
Mem Clk: 1000.00 MHz
Performance Level 3
Core Clk: 797.00 MHz
Mem Clk: 1250.00 MHz
Boost clocks
P0 Boost: 915.00 MHz
P0 Base: 797.00 MHz

Same Bios: Dell GTX 860M, NVIDIA GTX 860M

I doubt Clevo vbios will work, but of course you can always try.
I think you can flash this card using bootcamp, using tools like nvflash.
Could be tricky to setup bootcamp blindly, but it could be a way to flash the card.
I dont think you can flash the card within macOS.

best is in my opinion to just buy a known compatible Dell/Alienware model, this way you won't have to pray and try to flash one your self..

 

[Ove K]

I doubt Clevo vbios will work, but of course you can always try.
I think you can flash this card using bootcamp, using tools like nvflash.
Could be tricky to setup bootcamp blindly, but it could be a way to flash the card.
I dont think you can flash the card within macOS.

best is in my opinion to just buy a known compatible Dell/Alienware model, this way you won't have to pray and try to flash one your self..

Thank you. I bring the card to work with Ubuntu Linux (Unpluged SSD and booting form live DVD).
OSX from my SSD (high sierra preinstalled) don't show anything. Sometimes i've got a bing noise at any key when i try to make a blindfold login. The volume buttons works. Maybe it is my FileVault Drive?

The "Dell GTX 860M 4 GB BIOS" from techpowerup.com has the same VBIOS Version: 80.04.E9.00.03 like the Clevo and the nvflash compare is identical. So i don't think that flashing will help.

I've made a patched Mojave installation on a usb-drive, unplugged the other drives and the iMac started, but only showed the screen on a external display. On booth TB-Ports. This means, that it is the wrong vBios? Ubuntu from DVD could light the iMac Screen up.

 

[evasketch]

Hey guys!
iMac 2011 21.5-inch user here. I plan on upgrading to k2000m, will I be able to run 3840x2160 resolution on external display?

Thank you!