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

[passatgt]

So I have changed the GPU on my mid 2010 21.5 iMac with an Nvidia Quatro K1100M and i don't have a boot menu but in boots into macOS High Sierra and i was wondering if i can flash it using macOS

Can you please do a Valley test? I have the same machine with the same card but i got worse score compared to the original crappy ATI gpu... and wondering if its an issue with my machince or the K1100M is not fully compatible(no acceleration). You can download the test tool here: https://benchmark.unigine.com/valley
As for flashing, we don't have a fixed rom for the k1100m i think.

 

[StereoNewt]

Can you please do a Valley test? I have the same machine with the same card but i got worse score compared to the original crappy ATI gpu... and wondering if its an issue with my machince or the K1100M is not fully compatible(no acceleration). You can download the test tool here: https://benchmark.unigine.com/valley
As for flashing, we don't have a fixed rom for the k1100m i think.

i can´t do the test right now but i will post the results here in 5 hours,
and with the rom..the first page of this forum shows the rom for the K1100m

 

[FlorisVN]

So I have changed the GPU on my mid 2010 21.5 iMac with an Nvidia Quatro K1100M and i don't have a boot menu but in boots into macOS High Sierra and i was wondering if i can flash it using macOS

nope, there is currently no EFI mod for a Quadro K1100m.
Please read previous pages.

User Nick [D]vB posted an EFI mod, containing vbios files for several Nvidia GTX cards.
currently only the following nvidia cards are compatible : GTX765/770/780m.
Perhaps someday a EFI mod will be made available for your Quadro card.

atm, you will have to live without a bootscreen for your card.

 

[passatgt]

i can´t do the test right now but i will post the results here in 5 hours,
and with the rom..the first page of this forum shows the rom for the K1100m

Thats just the compatible Dell rom that works with iMacs without bootscreen.

 

[duvelhedz]

Replacement logic board acquired. Will be testing outputs on the Proto Nvidia card later.

 

[passatgt]

I'm trying to flash 80.07.CC.00.04 onto my k1100m, but i have the following error: Error: Image size (175616 B) doesn't match the flash chip's size (262144 B)!

Any ideas how to solve this? Do i need to replace the bios chip with a smaller capacity? Or is it possible to add padding at the end to match sizes?

 

[NOTNlCE]

I'm trying to flash 80.07.CC.00.04 onto my k1100m, but i have the following error: Error: Image size (175616 B) doesn't match the flash chip's size (262144 B)!

Any ideas how to solve this? Do i need to replace the bios chip with a smaller capacity? Or is it possible to add padding at the end to match sizes?

You can add a flag to nvflash to ignore the ID mismatch. Here is the guide I followed.

EDIT: Sorry, I did not read thoroughly. You may need to pad the rom, I had to fix device ID on mine, but it flashed OK.

Looks like you are using flashrom? If you use nvflash you will not face this issue.

 

[highvoltage12v]

Flashrom needs files exactly the same size as the EEPROM, try it now...

Wow, I'm gone for a few months and we now have EFI boot screens, after reading 20+ pages of updates (Thanks @Nick [D]vB) I think I'm going to start with my 2010 21.5" Xeon iMac because its the easiest to take apart currently. Should I attempt this with this current ROM? I see there is early progress on Backlight control due to an unreleased 540m dump. (Thanks @duvelhedz) Also as a refresher I am the one who shoved (quite literally) a 765m into an MXM-A 21.5" 2011 iMac. I read many pages back from a conversation with @Roman78 that the card no longer runs in Safe Mode under Windows 10, do you think my card will now clock higher than 800MHz while in an MXM-A slot while still hitting the MXM-A wattage limit? I'll certainly test it, but currently space to take apart my iMacs is limited, I'll still boot patch and flash my 2010 k2000m iMac and report back.

 

[FlorisVN]

Wow, I'm gone for a few months and we now have EFI boot screens, after reading 20+ pages of updates (Thanks @Nick [D]vB) I think I'm going to start with my 2010 21.5" Xeon iMac because its the easiest to take apart currently. Should I attempt this with this current ROM? I see there is early progress on Backlight control due to an unreleased 540m dump. (Thanks @duvelhedz) Also as a refresher I am the one who shoved (quite literally) a 765m into an MXM-A 21.5" 2011 iMac. I read many pages back from a conversation with @Roman78 that the card no longer runs in Safe Mode under Windows 10, do you think my card will now clock higher than 800MHz while in an MXM-A slot while still hitting the MXM-A wattage limit? I'll certainly test it, but currently space to take apart my iMacs is limited, I'll still boot patch and flash my 2010 k2000m iMac and report back.

good to have you back here
dosdude1 is also onboard.. (check his post several pages back)

I think not many users out here are running a GTX765m inside a 21,5" iMac, correct me if im wrong of course.
the vbios from Nick [D]vB does also give more performance to our geforce cards, and breaks some limits here.
If you could test it and share results here that would be great..
Afterall it could still trothle indeed, since power limit's of a 21,5" iMac, but who knows..

Perhaps indeed someday we can have a full brightness controll working, who knows..

One feauture I would really like to see working someday if possible, is target display mode.
And even better target display mode over displayport signals, instead of only true thunderbolt on 2011 27" iMac.
And being able to read the GPU Die temperature within MacOS, is also on my wishlist..
[automerge]1570566390[/automerge]
@duvelhedz ,

Im wondering and very Im very curious, can you read the GPU Die temperature within MacOS with your prototype card.. ?

tools like MacsFancontrol report it's temperature.. ?

 

[Nick [D]vB]

Windows 10 is working fine with this HP board, I dumped its rom using Windows 10:
You say that they also modded the system EFI? If you need it I can dump it, let me know!
It would be very nice to use these boards by only injecting the EFI part in the bootrom and leaving the EEPROM intact.

I think windows works in UEFI mode, but not legacy MBR mode? Maybe the black-screen issue only happened on the 27" ?? I remember different combinations of card type / vbios / efi were needed for different iMac models, but it's years since I tested them. They would not have needed to mod the system bootrom because they soldered a bigger EEPROM to the card. I should still have the bootrom patch files for the M5950 / M5800 cards somewhere, which saves you from having to change the EEPROM chip, I'll post them when I can find the right hard disk!

In the past i also always enabled RDP, this was my perfect fall back. enabling RDP could save your day..

Yes RDP works great for windows, but then you need a different system for MacOS, VNC etc

anyone knows if it's possible to enable Airplay mirroring on Mojave/Catalina on our 2011 iMac's ?

I think it works on the AMD 460 / 580 cards, I'll try and test it when I get time. Airplay probably does H.264 encoding on CPU, so would need the SandyBridge kexts installed, but SideCar does HEVC on the GPU.

@Nick [D]vB ,
I was thinking about this prototype nvidia card from @duvelhedz.
Perhaps Apple was searching for a good GPU at the time, and was comparing AMD to nvidia cards..

Yes I'm sure they were getting ready to switch to the green team, even before the 2011 shipped!

@duvelhedz ,
Im wondering and very Im very curious, can you read the GPU Die temperature within MacOS with your prototype card.. ?

tools like MacsFancontrol report it's temperature.. ?

Good point, I'd be really interested to know if GPU die temp is reported on the 540M card in MacOS?
If it does we might be able to flip some magic bits in the vBIOS/EFI and fix that on the Kepler cards!

I'm trying to flash 80.07.CC.00.04 onto my k1100m, but i have the following error: Error: Image size (175616 B) doesn't match the flash chip's size (262144 B)!

Any ideas how to solve this? Do i need to replace the bios chip with a smaller capacity? Or is it possible to add padding at the end to match sizes?

The padded rom is attached, it will work in Flashrom now. EDIT - glad to see you worked it out already! 8)

I have not tested this for Mojave - since Mojave requires manual patch selection, I just remove the Legacy Video Card patch each time. Catalina patcher is now automated, a great feature, but requires this tweak if we have replaced our video cards. I am having an odd issue installing Catalina on my 2011 with K1100M, but that is an item for another thread.

I did ask DosDude1 about fixing this, as I understand it the legacy patch is pretty useless on the 2010/11 iMacs anyway because it can't fix acceleration on HD5/6xxx gen cards. There's something to be said for letting users who know what there doing have some more control over the patching process...

Wow, I'm gone for a few months and we now have EFI boot screens, after reading 20+ pages of updates (Thanks @Nick [D]vB) I think I'm going to start with my 2010 21.5" Xeon iMac because its the easiest to take apart currently. Should I attempt this with this current ROM? I see there is early progress on Backlight control due to an unreleased 540m dump. (Thanks @duvelhedz) Also as a refresher I am the one who shoved (quite literally) a 765m into an MXM-A 21.5" 2011 iMac. I read many pages back from a conversation with @Roman78 that the card no longer runs in Safe Mode under Windows 10, do you think my card will now clock higher than 800MHz while in an MXM-A slot while still hitting the MXM-A wattage limit? I'll certainly test it, but currently space to take apart my iMacs is limited, I'll still boot patch and flash my 2010 k2000m iMac and report back.

Hey, great to see you back, we were about to send out a search party! Just flashing my 765M vbios should fix the clock / power limits, unless the SMC pokes it's nose in somehow? The PSU should be ok, just don't go nuts overclocking the card in windows! No boot-screen on the Quadro cards yet, even with a bootrom mod, I'll try and get around to modding their vbios at some point, but need cards to test with. I do have a few spare RX560 cards if you're interested in switching to the red team? Let us know how the tests go - before you go AWOL again!

 

[passatgt]

You can add a flag to nvflash to ignore the ID mismatch. Here is the guide I followed.

EDIT: Sorry, I did not read thoroughly. You may need to pad the rom, I had to fix device ID on mine, but it flashed OK.

Looks like you are using flashrom? If you use nvflash you will not face this issue.

Yes, i'm using flashrom with a raspberry pi and a soic clip, works pretty well. I just had to pad the rom like this: "truncate -s 256kB new.rom"
This did the trick, i'll test tomorrow and see if it actually works. Flashing was ok at least. I bought a 1gb k1100m a while ago which did not work, but i took a closer look and it actually has 2gb of vram chips on it. It was probably removed from a Dell notebook, but its a really effed up business model that you buy a notebook and the hardware is there, they just limit the available memory with a simple firmware change...

 

[highvoltage12v]

Hey, great to see you back, we were about to send out a search party! Just flashing my 765M vbios should fix the clock /power limits, unless the SMC pokes it's nose in somehow? The PSU should be ok, just don't go nuts overclocking it in windows! No boot-screen on the Quadro cards yet, even with the bootrom mod, I will try and get around to those at some point. I do have a few RX560 cards if your interested in switching to the red team? Let us know how the tests go, before you go AWOL again!

Darn, I just went through taking apart my iMac and flashing both my k2000m (I thought the file above was modded because it had the same naming structure as in the ZIP) and Modding my iMac's EFI only to notice your username not next to the card name in System Profiler(and logging in to read the above post) oh well at least my EFI is modded now. Thank you @Nick [D]vB for posting Flashrom on post #3029 because with the CH341 'black edition' program I usually use has resulted in a non booting iMac twice, the program is still good for erasing the EEPROM and detecting.

 

[duvelhedz]

good to have you back here
dosdude1 is also onboard.. (check his post several pages back)

I think not many users out here are running a GTX765m inside a 21,5" iMac, correct me if im wrong of course.
the vbios from Nick [D]vB does also give more performance to our geforce cards, and breaks some limits here.
If you could test it and share results here that would be great..
Afterall it could still trothle indeed, since power limit's of a 21,5" iMac, but who knows..

Perhaps indeed someday we can have a full brightness controll working, who knows..

One feauture I would really like to see working someday if possible, is target display mode.
And even better target display mode over displayport signals, instead of only true thunderbolt on 2011 27" iMac.
And being able to read the GPU Die temperature within MacOS, is also on my wishlist..
[automerge]1570566390[/automerge]
@duvelhedz ,

Im wondering and very Im very curious, can you read the GPU Die temperature within MacOS with your prototype card.. ?

tools like MacsFancontrol report it's temperature.. ?

Die temperature is being reported in macOS in macsfancontrol with the prototype card. Also, There is video to external on one of the 2 DisplayPort outputs. This is to be expected as the card was designed for a 21.5" which only shipped with one output.

As for target display mode, I need to borrow a TB cable before I would be able to test it. I think it may well work as the 2011 21.5" is a supported model for target display.

 

[Nick [D]vB]

Darn, I just went through taking apart my iMac and flashing both my k2000m (I thought the file above was modded because it had the same naming structure as in the ZIP)

Sorry! That was just a padded K1100M vbios for passatgt, and was too late anyway. Well at least you got the bootrom mod done ok. I will be getting some Quadro cards to test soon. I've tried to warn people about that CH341 software, and also noticed the SST chips cause more problems than the MXIC ones, still not sure if it's purely a software thing or a physical clip contact issue?? Have you been able to test the 765M card out yet? You can just flash the vBIOS to start with, I would be very interested to know how it performs in the 21" now.

 

[highvoltage12v]

Sorry! That was just a padded K1100M vbios for passatgt, and was too late anyway. Well at least you got the bootrom mod done ok. I will be getting some Quadro cards to test soon. I've tried to warn people about that CH341 software, and also noticed the SST chips cause more problems than the MXIC ones, still not sure if it's purely a software thing or a physical clip contact issue?? Have you been able to test the 765M card out yet? You can just flash the vBIOS to start with, I would be very interested to know how it performs in the 21" now.

I just took 2011 21.5" the iMac off the shelf, (I no longer daily this one anymore) turns out it has a 770m not a 765m. I'm doing software updates on it now so it has the newest firmware. Then I will mod and flash the EFI which will most likely be tomorrow.

 

[Nick [D]vB]

Cool, yes best to update it first, you can flash my 770M vbios using the clip or nvflash, using the Beta2 files.

 

[liquidtwitch]

I need to borrow a TB cable before I would be able to test it

I've got one I no longer use that I can post to you, but I'm in Australia so it might take a few weeks to get to you.

 

[highvoltage12v]

I've got one I no longer use that I can post to you, but I'm in Australia so it might take a few weeks to get to you.

So everything is finished I have modded my EFI (somehow modded my old 82.0) and have flashed my 770M to the patched ROM. I have as boot screen but only when ALT is pressed on boot. I assume this is normal because in @FlorisVN video he also has boot screen when ALT is pressed, not complaining at all I think this is an amazing step in the right direction for running newer Metal OS's on older iMacs. I own a thundertolt 2 cable and have tested this iMac with my 2015 iMac and 2014 rMBP, unfortunately I was unable to have either Mac work in Target Display Mode. My cable is not a Genuine Apple cable if it makes any difference. I actually cannot get TDP to work between my 2014 rMBP and the 2015 iMac so not sure what the issue is.

 

[FlorisVN]

Die temperature is being reported in macOS in macsfancontrol with the prototype card. Also, There is video to external on one of the 2 DisplayPort outputs. This is to be expected as the card was designed for a 21.5" which only shipped with one output.

As for target display mode, I need to borrow a TB cable before I would be able to test it. I think it may well work as the 2011 21.5" is a supported model for target display.

wow thats g

So everything is finished I have modded my EFI (somehow modded my old 82.0) and have flashed my 770M to the patched ROM. I have as boot screen but only when ALT is pressed on boot. I assume this is normal because in @FlorisVN video he also has boot screen when ALT is pressed, not complaining at all I think this is an amazing step in the right direction for running newer Metal OS's on older iMacs. I own a thundertolt 2 cable and have tested this iMac with my 2015 iMac and 2014 rMBP, unfortunately I was unable to have either Mac work in Target Display Mode. My cable is not a Genuine Apple cable if it makes any difference. I actually cannot get TDP to work between my 2014 rMBP and the 2015 iMac so not sure what the issue is.

Great you got it working
I used flashrom under MacOS for the bootrom patch, it always worked great for me so far.
Under Windows i got driver/software issues to start with so very quickly I switched over to macOS..
I would still reccomend you use MacOS/Linux for this job..

Anyway, the EFI bootscreen has a small delay, this is one of the minor bugs which are currently still present.
i did not mentioned this in my video, and sorry for this..
It takes about 4-5 seconds sometimes longer I think, for the EFI bootscreen to appear.
When booting with an SSD, u usually get a screen when loading is almost done for MacOS, so you wont see the bootscreen at all.

of course this could all perhaps change and get better, thx to the prototype nvidia card from duvelhedz.
the last iMac that supported target display mode is a 2014 imac, so unfortionutly your 2015 iMac is not supported for this feature.

More information about this can be found here :

Χρήση του iMac ως οθόνης με τη λειτουργία οθόνης προορισμού - Apple Υποστήριξη (GR)

Η λειτουργία οθόνης προορισμού είναι μια δυνατότητα η οποία είναι διαθέσιμη σε ορισμένα παλαιότερα μοντέλα Mac.

support.apple.com

I think a third-party thunderbolt cable could work, but im not sure here.
in theory they should be the same..

how does the GTX770m now perform on your 21,5" iMac.. ?
[automerge]1570610434[/automerge]

Die temperature is being reported in macOS in macsfancontrol with the prototype card. Also, There is video to external on one of the 2 DisplayPort outputs. This is to be expected as the card was designed for a 21.5" which only shipped with one output.

As for target display mode, I need to borrow a TB cable before I would be able to test it. I think it may well work as the 2011 21.5" is a supported model for target display.

ok thx for this info, thats great !
perhaps somebody like @Nick [D]vB can make it possible, to add this option in his roms aswell.
being able to read the actuall die temperature is a great welcome I would say..

21,5" iMac's dont support target display mode unfortionutly.
It could however be very interessting to know, if this function was still there on this cards rom firmware when testing on a 27" iMac.
Let's hope it is still in there, but can only be used atm when you put this special card inside a 27" iMac.
who knows..

You need a true TB cable for this, and a true TB mac on the other side.

Thx again for your testing and sharing sir !

 

[FlorisVN]

@Nick [D]vB
there is also a free RDP client available for MacOS on the Macappstore..
so using RDP on macOS is no problem..

Im very interested to know if Airplay mirroring does work with your AMD cards..
perhaps it can also work for Nvidia cards, and we just need the Intel HD3000 kexts to install them back.. ?
Who knows, we needed these kexts back anyway for sleep mode on 2011 iMac's..

Perhaps @highvoltage12v , you can confirm Airplay mirroring is working on your 2011 iMac, with Mojave/Catalina.. ?

 

[duvelhedz]

21,5" iMac's dont support target display mode unfortionutly.
It could however be very interessting to know, if this function was still there on this cards rom firmware when testing on a 27" iMac.
Let's hope it is still in there, but can only be used atm when you put this special card inside a 27" iMac.
who knows..

It will not work on the 2009/10 models. It will work over Thunderbolt only it seems.

Can I use target display mode on a Mid 20… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[FlorisVN]

It will not work on the 2009/10 models. It will work over Thunderbolt only it seems.

Can I use target display mode on a Mid 20… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

only 2011 imac's use true thunderbolt that is correct, 09/10 imacs use Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort.
more info can be found here :

Χρήση του iMac ως οθόνης με τη λειτουργία οθόνης προορισμού - Apple Υποστήριξη (GR)

Η λειτουργία οθόνης προορισμού είναι μια δυνατότητα η οποία είναι διαθέσιμη σε ορισμένα παλαιότερα μοντέλα Mac.

support.apple.com

I remember when Rominator was working on his 780m rom, he mentioned he could perhaps also change this someday for the 2011 iMac's, to get them to also be compatible with Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort signals instead of only TB signals.

 

[duvelhedz]

I've got one I no longer use that I can post to you, but I'm in Australia so it might take a few weeks to get to you.

Thanks for the offer. I will be able to borrow one today so no worries

 

[Borak]

Just do the heatsink mod, and make sure you have a compatible Dell/Alienware card.
Also I recommend you run macos high sierra.

Then should indeed be plug and play !

Thanks!

 

[shaocaholica]

Getting in on this pretty late. I have a 2011 27” that I would like to get working on a newer OS with the dosdude patcher.