Interesting. I really thought I could install without a patch. Thank's!đź‘Ťthat is correct,you need a patcher tool like dosdude1's Mojave/Catalina patcher in order to install Mojave or Catalina.
Your 2011 iMac is not natively supported by Apple.
Mojave patcher can be downloaded here :
I would also highly reccomend applying the Nick's bootrom mod, this will make your live much more easier !
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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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nope it does not unfortunately natively, however when upgraded to a metal compatible card, you are in my opinion theory 100% compatible with Mojave/Catalina.
I also think the only reason why 2011 iMac's are not supported, is due to the lack of Metal support for those AMD GPU's.
I installed the Nvidia GeForce 770M. Even so it does not install natively.
I left AMD a long time ago.
Hi guys. Please tell me, if my iMac turns on with the GTX 765, does it need to update the firmware, or only the bootroon firmware from Nick?
My HP K1100M arrived today, it still isn't clear for me after reading thrue the forum what would be the upgrade process, my iMac 2011 21,5" is running high-sierra now.
Do i first need to swap the video card before performing the update via dosdude patcher ? But then i loose the bootscreen right ? Or is it the oher way around ?
Should i go to Mojave or directly to Catalina ?
I would go with Mojave. Install that first using the patcher tool(make sure you deselect the legacy video card patch) and swap the card after that. If you really want to make it fool-proof, install high sierra first on a small partition and install mojave on the second one. So if you do a pram reset, even without a bootscreen, you will be back in High Sierra if something goes wrong with Mojave. And from there, you can select a different startup disk if needed. But Catalina should work fine too, but i believe its really buggy based on what i read online about it.
Sounds like perhaps a wrong vbios (model) GTX765M card you are running atm.
which version are you using, I would highly advise to run a Dell/Alienware compatible model.
Do you have external monitor working atm, but not internal iMac LCD.. ?
You can enable screensharing, and also connect to it, and see which card is detected, and using system profiler you can see the VBIOS your card is using..
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Ok I see, I also prefer Nvidia over AMD.
But when I look at the MacOS future, AMD cards are the best for longer MacOS Support.
Luckily Nick also made EFI mods for Nvidia RX580/560 cards..
!So we have a long future ahead..
Maybe Catalina is the last MacOS that supports Nvidia Kepler cards OOB, who knows..
You just need to remove the glass and the LCD screen (not the logic board), very easy on the scheme of things.
Yes, but the BIOS of the video card will also need to be modified, and in order to do this, will it be necessary to remove the logic board?
Hi,
I have a 21.5 iMac 2010 and have installed a Quadro K1100M. The BIOS version of the card is the prerequisite. (80.07.CC.00.04)
I've tried running Catalina several times, but the internal display just does not work. High Sierra and Mojave ran smoothly though. I patched the model list of the Catalina Patcher, as mentioned in post 1, but to no avail. Since I could read out no problems here in this thread, I go from a mistake on my part. Catalina was freshly installed over the iMac. During the installation process the internal display worked. Since the DisplayPort connection does not work (Windows does show a separate DisplayPort output but does not work), I can not investigate any possible error messages. Without acceleration, the graphics card worked well for the Catalina installation - and also under Mojave and High Sierra. By the way, Catalina launches - so you hear the VoiceOver announcement.
Can someone help me maybe and tell other sources of error that I obviously have not considered?
I have a 21.5 iMac 2010 and have installed a Quadro K1100M. The BIOS version of the card is the prerequisite. (80.07.CC.00.04)
I've tried running Catalina several times, but the internal display just does not work. High Sierra and Mojave ran smoothly though. I patched the model list of the Catalina Patcher, as mentioned in post 1, but to no avail. Since I could read out no problems here in this thread, I go from a mistake on my part. Catalina was freshly installed over the iMac. During the installation process the internal display worked. Since the DisplayPort connection does not work (Windows does show a separate DisplayPort output but does not work), I can not investigate any possible error messages. Without acceleration, the graphics card worked well for the Catalina installation - and also under Mojave and High Sierra. By the way, Catalina launches - so you hear the VoiceOver announcement.
Can someone help me maybe and tell other sources of error that I obviously have not considered?
i just replaced the file and made a usb harddrive with the patcher but stil same issue with black screen since its using the legacy driver.
are you sure its working while creating a usb drive to or is it only working while upgrading for mojave with the patcher ?
I tried both on my 21.5 iMac 2010 with Quadro K1100M. Both upgrade from Mojave, as well as reinstallation from the iMac. With automatic post-install patching, but also with manual patching, after the automatic post-install patching has been 'switched off'.
Nope you can use NVFlash in either Windows or Linux to do it. I've written some instructions on how to do it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/post-27787298
I will indeed stick with Mojave for the moment. I would like to keep a High Sierra partition for emergency. As it is allready running, can i just perform re-partitioning ? Never done this on Mac...
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keep in mind, that the catalina patcher for 09/10 imac's auto selects and uses the legacy video patcher.
It does not anymore for 2011 iMac's.
I think this could perhaps give problems with your card, but i'm not sure.
With mojave patcher you had the option to deselect the legacy video patcher..
as far as I know, it's not possible or not known atm to edit the dosdude1 catalina patcher for 09/10 imac's to not select the legacy video patcher during it's automated script..
perhaps @dosdude1, can give us some answers here.. I dont know..
nope not possible to use a virtual machine for this..
Only true bootcamp Windows using nvflash/Linux or using an external flasher like a CH341A with eeprom clipper..
There is a macmodels.plist file in the patcher, where you can switch the individual patches on and off for the respective model. In addition, you can turn off the automatic post-install patching in a plist file, which is located in the main directory of the created USB stick (name does not come to mind). Then you can patch it normally via the post-install patch tool as before.
Unfortunately that did not work. The important question would be whether the legacy video patch would have such a big impact that the Kepler drivers do not seem to load correctly anymore? Although I have manually switched this video patch, but then it can not come to these errors? In addition, I can start the Catalina installer without problems on the iMac and above all then the display functions. There will probably be the difference that the installer usually no graphics acceleration is on and therefore the display does not work with Acceleration? Or is there a bug in @dosdude1 's Catalina Patcher? That would be my idea. In this thread I could not find any problems with a K1100M and Catalina.
I would also defer questions to dosdude, the .plist patch I used was in an early version of the patcher, I am unsure if it still works. I've since removed my Catalina partition as my good K1100M iMac has been shipped off to a family member. I have another on the bench, but it appears to be somehow damaged and requires further investigation. If I get it working I can test more.
I think the reason that the Catalina installer starts, and display's with no isseus is due to the fact that the legacy video patcher is not yet enabled inside the installer.
Installer MacOS GUI is not running with video acceleration at all, it's running in software rendering mode.
This is also the reason why the GUI within the MacOS installer is a little buggy in my opinion.
Of course correct me if I'm wrong on this one..
Anyway, I think your problems with your K1100M and Catalina could very well be due to Legacy video patcher, in combination with your type of card and Mac model.
of course I'm not sure, but perhaps @dosdude1 could clarify this for us..
Or help us in some way, to edit the Catalina patcher for 09/10 imac's to auto have Legacy video patcher disabled by default someway..
If I'm correct, I think currently only 2011 iMac's have this option disabled by default now with the Catalina Patcher.
In my opinion this is also worth it for 2010 IMac's, but not for 09 iMac's.
Since 09 imac's graphic cards work fine with Legacy video patcher..
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Let's hope you can get your second K1100M working again, luckaly these go for pretty cheap..
Anyway I totally agree with you.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but where you the person which also posted a workarround here for Mojave patcher to disable the legacy patcher on that one.. ?
Someone could make a macOS Catalina patcher patcher. Just swaps the macmodels file with an option to revert.
I had initially posted the .plist change for the Catalina patcher, but it seems that may not work any longer as some have posted here? Unfortunately I don't have another machine handy to test with at the moment. Mojave should be fairly easy as you can manually select patches in the post-install procedure.