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

[sanityvortex]

I recently picked up a used Imac 21.5" I5-2400s A1311 MC309LL original config.
Wanting to max this out. I had two questions.
Can I use a 1260L Xeon processor? (or is the microcode not supported?) https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...eon-processor-e3-1260l-8m-cache-2-40-ghz.html

It is socket 1155 and has a lower power draw (45w) than the suggested i7 (65w)or original i5-2400s.

Would lowering this cpu power draw allow me to use a higher draw mx card. What is the best card as of 2019 I can successfully put in this unit with minimal heatsink modifications?


Thanks in advance

 

[FlorisVN]

Attempting the bootrom mod on a 27" late 2009 (4MB bootrom) Where do I need to add the 2 patches on this bootrom, There DXE volumes are named differently. I attempted to add them where there was free space but the version of UEFI tool that worked to mod the 2011 didn't like my attempts to beat the 2009 rom into submission.

Hmm strange, as far ad I can remember the 09 27” iMac had been reported to work with the bootrom mod from nick.
But correct me if I’m wrong here..
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I recently picked up a used Imac 21.5" I5-2400s A1311 MC309LL original config.
Wanting to max this out. I had two questions.
Can I use a 1260L Xeon processor? (or is the microcode not supported?) https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...eon-processor-e3-1260l-8m-cache-2-40-ghz.html

It is socket 1155 and has a lower power draw (45w) than the suggested i7 (65w)or original i5-2400s.

Would lowering this cpu power draw allow me to use a higher draw mx card. What is the best card as of 2019 I can successfully put in this unit with minimal heatsink modifications?


Thanks in advance

perhaps lower watt cpu could help, have no idea.
But still I would not add a high end gpu to a 21,5” iMac.
Would only use them in 27” models..

 

[duvelhedz]

Hmm strange, as far ad I can remember the 09 27” iMac had been reported to work with the bootrom mod from nick.
But correct me if I’m wrong here..
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perhaps lower watt cpu could help, have no idea.
But still I would not add a high end gpu to a 21,5” iMac.
Would only use them in 27” models..

Its a 27” i5 model. Not a 21” or a C2D

 

[jmilan0302]

I recently picked up a used Imac 21.5" I5-2400s A1311 MC309LL original config.
Wanting to max this out. I had two questions.
Can I use a 1260L Xeon processor? (or is the microcode not supported?) https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...eon-processor-e3-1260l-8m-cache-2-40-ghz.html

It is socket 1155 and has a lower power draw (45w) than the suggested i7 (65w)or original i5-2400s.

Would lowering this cpu power draw allow me to use a higher draw mx card. What is the best card as of 2019 I can successfully put in this unit with minimal heatsink modifications?


Thanks in advance

From what I've heard the L series lower power Xeons are crap, better off getting a normal Xeon. They should work fine, I know some people here have done it successfully and someone has put an L series Xeon in a 2010 iMac. I think even i7 2600k will work just fine, the CPU heatsink in an A1312 alone is probably as big as the entire heatsink in an iMac Pro.

 

[Underbeat88]

Hey. Did anything happen to do with a delay in the boot screen?

 

[FlorisVN]

Hey. Did anything happen to do with a delay in the boot screen?

no not yet, maybe perhaps someday who knows..

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Perfectly reversible, I'm quite the handy little solder goblin when I need to be, so I'm used to working on stuff like this. For now I'm experiancing an interesting issue with the wx7100 where the core clock and memory clock are both locked at 300mhz, rather than the 1280 they're supposed to be boosting to and running at. Benchmarks reflect this reading too, HWmonitor, ect. all confirm it. Not sure how to move forward from here, did a clean install of windows, ect. Been working at it, but so far even after a clean install I'm still getting the problem. No benchmarks yet. Thoughts?

(ALSO, very sorry I actually have a 2011 i5-2500s 27 inch imac 12,2. Mis identified last time by mistake. Apologies.)

Concerning memory and core clock for the wx7100, i'am in the same boat. There's no throttling at all in Mac OS (mojave). And in Windows10 1903 (Bios), i get a 43 error trying to load a driver for the WX7100 card.
The big advantage is that there's no overheating in Mac OS (25W)😃

 

[Nick [D]vB]

That's great that you have bought a k2000m and k1100m cards, take your time no rush we're all rooting for you. I bought the dyinglight module and cables to do my 27" iMac the next time I have it apart, will also do the boot rom modifications.

Thanks, I'll do my best! Let me know if you have any questions on the DyingLight install.

Attempting the bootrom mod on a 27" late 2009 (4MB bootrom) Where do I need to add the 2 patches on this bootrom, There DXE volumes are named differently. I attempted to add them where there was free space but the version of UEFI tool that worked to mod the 2011 didn't like my attempts to beat the 2009 rom into submission.

It should work on the late 2009, if you PM me the bootrom dump I'll take a look!

Concerning memory and core clock for the wx7100, i'am in the same boat. There's no throttling at all in Mac OS (mojave). And in Windows10 1903 (Bios), i get a 43 error trying to load a driver for the WX7100 card.
The big advantage is that there's no overheating in Mac OS (25W)😃

Are you using my Beta 1 or Beta 2 vBIOS? I will test my WX7100 again when my new logic-board arrives. Run this grep script in Terminal to monitor real GPU clocks, start a 3D benchmark (not full-screen) and you should see the clocks change??

while sleep 2; do ioreg -l |grep \"PerformanceStatistics\" | cut -d '{' -f 2 | tr '|' ',' | tr -d '}' | tr ',' '\n'|grep 'Temp\|Fan\|Clock'; done

There are lots of things that can trigger the 300MHz lock in Windows, it's a common issue with desktop cards. One thing to try is boot with an external display connected, then extend the desktop and drag a 3D benchmark (and GPUZ) onto that screen and see if the clocks boost properly then?

The code 43 issue is complicated to fix, during the mining craze AMD added extra checks to the driver to detect an edited vBIOS, there are ways around it but the first thing to try is to load an older driver, try version 18.Q1.1:

Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 (Mobile) Previous Drivers | AMD

www.amd.com

Let me know what you find, I'll look into this properly when I get home.

 

[Underbeat88]

no not yet, maybe perhaps someday who knows..

Yes, that would be a great achievement for our old iMacs.

 

[Roman78]

Today my 30 Euro test iMac from 2010 arrived.... well... After some inspection... it is a 2011 model with an i7-2600

 

[jmilan0302]

Today my 30 Euro test iMac from 2010 arrived.... well... After some inspection... it is a 2011 model with an i7-2600

WOW that is one hell of a deal! My 2010 27" i3-550 cost 10x that... I assume it's a 21.5" though?

 

[FlorisVN]

Today my 30 Euro test iMac from 2010 arrived.... well... After some inspection... it is a 2011 model with an i7-2600

nice good deal 👍😉

 

[Roman78]

No.. sadly a 27"... There is no 21,5" with an i7-2600...

Now i own 3 of those 27" 2011 iMac's. I planned to cut a hole in the back for better access to the GPU for testing purpose. So i searched for an cheap one.

 

[FlorisVN]

No.. sadly a 27"... There is no 21,5" with an i7-2600...

Now i own 3 of those 27" 2011 iMac's. I planned to cut a hole in the back for better access to the GPU for testing purpose. So i searched for an cheap one.

haha nice, same as mee
got 2 for free from clients, and already got one.
using the last one as a test imac, but would never make a hole in the back..

 

[Mr-Mur]

I planned to cut a hole

Fire in the hole!

 

[passatgt]

No.. sadly a 27"... There is no 21,5" with an i7-2600...

Now i own 3 of those 27" 2011 iMac's. I planned to cut a hole in the back for better access to the GPU for testing purpose. So i searched for an cheap one.

Why not create a test bench, so you remove the PSU and the motherboard and fix it with some screws on a test bench? all you need to connect is a power switch, 2 fans(odd, cpu) and maybe a speaker to hear the boot sound and you can test with an external screen.

 

[Ooze]

Concerning memory and core clock for the wx7100, i'am in the same boat. There's no throttling at all in Mac OS (mojave). And in Windows10 1903 (Bios), i get a 43 error trying to load a driver for the WX7100 card.
The big advantage is that there's no overheating in Mac OS (25W)😃

Damn, I've been trying to find a way around it for a while now. Not really making any progress.

 

[Nick [D]vB]

Are your clocks stuck at 300MHz in MacOS to? Have you tried the external screen trick in Windows? Not sure why I didn't get this on my system, I might have to tweak the vBIOS again or maybe just patch the windows drivers.

 

[udy hajia nur]

just install a gtx780m on my imac 27" 2011.. and there is sound.. but black screen..

 

[Roman78]

Why not create a test bench, so you remove the PSU and the motherboard and fix it with some screws on a test bench? all you need to connect is a power switch, 2 fans(odd, cpu) and maybe a speaker to hear the boot sound and you can test with an external screen.

I tried, but that is not practical. And you never know if the external screen is working with some alternative cards. Than i thought about the 2010, because you can swap the GPU without removing the Logicboard but still have to handle with that crappy LVDS-Cable. So the idear cam to just cut a hole in the back... so therefore the 30€ iMac. Did not know it was an i7-2600 Well first i have to test it.

 

[NOTNlCE]

just install a gtx780m on my imac 27" 2011.. and there is sound.. but black screen..

Check the first post - your GTX 780M likely has incompatible VBIOS at the moment. Very fixable - you'll need to flash it for correct display output using NVflash or flashrom.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Thanks, I'll do my best! Let me know if you have any questions on the DyingLight install.

It should work on the late 2009, if you PM me the bootrom dump I'll take a look!

Are you using my Beta 1 or Beta 2 vBIOS? I will test my WX7100 again when my new logic-board arrives. Run this grep script in Terminal to monitor real GPU clocks, start a 3D benchmark (not full-screen) and you should see the clocks change??

while sleep 2; do ioreg -l |grep \"PerformanceStatistics\" | cut -d '{' -f 2 | tr '|' ',' | tr -d '}' | tr ',' '\n'|grep 'Temp\|Fan\|Clock'; done

There are lots of things that can trigger the 300MHz lock in Windows, it's a common issue with desktop cards. One thing to try is boot with an external display connected, then extend the desktop and drag a 3D benchmark (and GPUZ) onto that screen and see if the clocks boost properly then?

The code 43 issue is complicated to fix, during the mining craze AMD added extra checks to the driver to detect an edited vBIOS, there are ways around it but the first thing to try is to load an older driver, try version 18.Q1.1:

Radeon™ Pro WX 7100 (Mobile) Previous Drivers | AMD

www.amd.com

Let me know what you find, I'll look into this properly when I get home.

Mac OS is throttling now. i messed up with extra kexts, on this side no problems. I also went back to beta1 vbios. In windows10 i cannot manage to load a driver either with beta2 or beta1 VW7100 vbios. I tested the driver you provided and even the one before 18.Q1, i still have a 43 error. In fact i tested a lot of drivers, cleaning each time with DDU before loading another driver.

 

[Nick [D]vB]

Thanks for replying, yes the Beta 1 vbios should be faster, but I would use the bootrom files from Beta2. I think the best way to fix the Windows code 43 error is by patching the driver, but I think we will need a custom patch.

Have you tried the official AMD BootCamp drivers from here:

Apple Boot Camp Software Graphics Drivers

www.amd.com

There are also these modded versions, try the Blue Edition first:

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BootCampDrivers.com: Turbo-charged AMD graphics drivers for Mac BootCamp users.

www.bootcampdrivers.com

You could also try the old Block-Chain drivers because they might have the vBIOS checks removed?

Knowledge Base Search

www.amd.com

If non of these work please try flashing the stock vBIOS, then load the latest driver and test if your clocks are also stuck at 300MHz with an external screen connected? Maybe then flash the Beta2 and see if the code 43 returns??

There might be a way to inject the GOP EFI into the bootrom so we can enable the boot-screen whilst using an un-modified vBIOS, so we can then use un-patched drivers. I will try and look at this when I get home.

 

[lamerz78]

So I have Catalina installed on my 2011 21.5" iMac now. To get the iMac to wake from sleep like in Mojave I had to use some (the HD3000Kext itself will cause a panic so its removed) to get the iMac to wake from sleep. I also now think my Kernel Panic issue earlier was from one of my SSD's because its not Panicking in Catalina.

We only need one kext from the ZIP "AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext" to allow our iMacs to wake from sleep, however My iMac will take about 40 seconds to boot with this kext installed. Still better than no sleep, will rebuild cache to see if this improves anything.

Hi!
I've a mid2011 iMac 21,5" with K2000M 2 Gb video card. Now I'm on Catalina. Do you think I need this kext or is it for "stock" video card?
Thanks

 

[highvoltage12v]

Hi!
I've a mid2011 iMac 21,5" with K2000M 2 Gb video card. Now I'm on Catalina. Do you think I need this kext or is it for "stock" video card?
Thanks

The "AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext" allows your iMac to wake from sleep properly, otherwise it will wake up to a blank screen with cursor. It doesn't matter which MXM card you have in your iMac such as a wx7100 or 780m/770m/765m etc. It just comes down to the fact that Mojave and Catalina have sandybridge kexts stripped from their OS, so power management doesn't function properly.

Again I will add with catalina the OS takes longer to boot with "AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext" installed, but having proper wake from sleep is worth it.