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

[havokalien]

I put a Dell Quadro K3000M card in a 2009 iMac with El Cap on it and it works great. Had to shave down the heatsink for 2 parts of the card being in a different location.

 

[sheldontung]

can i ask why do you sometimes need to put back the 6970m? also how much approx does a 780m cost, and is there more involved in installing it? sorry if thats covered in a previous post, ive tried to read them all but its a big thread.

a 2gb 6970m looks like being about €350 which is a lot of cash but probably worth it to take my mac to todays game level, just cause 3 and fallout 4, but a 4gb card would give me a few years more than that. however if the 6970m slots straight in and just works, then maybe best with that.

Because with no boot screen I can't reinstall the system. You should keep the original card just in case you need the boot screen someday.

I bought the 780m from TAOBAO.com. Only 1300CNY ≈ 183EUR.

 

[sheldontung]

Just let you guys know. I ran into some GPU overheating problem yesterday.

iMac crashed couple times while I was playing WoW. At first I thought it was accidental but it got worse. Whenever I started a game(WoW, Metro, Batman etc..) the screen froze and became blurred with green pixels. The only thing I could do is to cut off the power and reboot.

In despair, I daubed some new thermal grease on my 780m which luckily solved the problem. So even though the fan has already been set to 5000RPM I doubt I still have to do this every couple months to keep the GPU from burnout.

 

[pgleesonuk]

Just let you guys know. I ran into some GPU overheating problem yesterday.

iMac crashed couple times while I was playing WoW. At first I thought it was accidental but it got worse. Whenever I started a game(WoW, Metro, Batman etc..) the screen froze and became blurred with green pixels. The only thing I could do is to cut off the power and reboot.

In despair, I daubed some new thermal grease on my 780m which luckily solved the problem. So even though the fan has already been set to 5000RPM I doubt I still have to do this every couple months to keep the GPU from burnout.

You must always use good quality thermal paste on any heatsink!

 

[yifuhood]

GTX 680m should be cooler, I know it is not the top performer, but still , The GTX 680m should be a decent upgrade for iMacs from 2011 . why no one is taking about it here? I don't understand

 

[madeirabhoy]

Because with no boot screen I can't reinstall the system. You should keep the original card just in case you need the boot screen someday.

I bought the 780m from TAOBAO.com. Only 1300CNY ≈ 183EUR.

ah yes i see, when you said no boot screen i thought you meant just the apple logo.

so to install is quite easy, just slotting out the old and putting in the new, but then you need to top up the thermal paste every once in a while. is that easy to do?

 

[mhafeez]

Hi, are you still using this? Could you do a screenshot of the Graphics page of System Profiler? I am curious if it is device id of 119f. Also if you ram shows up as 4095 or 4096.



Is this still working? Can you have a look at the first "About this mac" screen and see how much RAM it sees?

The reason I am asking this is that usually the self-init cards lose 1 MG of VRAM, and you guys are showing what I think is same card with different results.

Is there anyone in LA/Hollywood area with an iMac with MXM slot or someone in US who could send me the card? Would need to be one with 119F as device id as we know that the driver exists. Warning: may very well not work with 1st, 2nd, or 3rd try, but MVC has had better results than anyone else, so odds are good we could come up with a winning solution.

Just to let you know that if I use the OSX Default Graphic Driver, the RAM shows 4096MB. But when I switch to the NVIDIA Web Driver the RAM shows 4095MB.

 

[sheldontung]

ah yes i see, when you said no boot screen i thought you meant just the apple logo.

so to install is quite easy, just slotting out the old and putting in the new, but then you need to top up the thermal paste every once in a while. is that easy to do?

They are basically the same process. Can't say it is easy but practice makes efficiency I think.

 

[sheldontung]

GTX 680m should be cooler, I know it is not the top performer, but still , The GTX 680m should be a decent upgrade for iMacs from 2011 . why no one is taking about it here? I don't understand

Maybe most people are slaves of extreme performance, you know, especially when it comes to GPU upgrade. lol

 

[Almur]

This is awesome! Do you have boot screen with Quadro? Did you flash rom or install drivers?

 

[Almur]

Does anybody knows if dual monitors works with any of the video card upgrades? I have second monitor attached to my iMac 21.5 2011. I need to know if the second monitor works before ordering new video card.
Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[mhafeez]

Does anybody knows if dual monitors works with any of the video card upgrades? I have second monitor attached to my iMac 21.5 2011. I need to know if the second monitor works before ordering new video card.
Thank you in advance for your help.

I can confirm you that you can add another monitor using a miniDisplayport - HDMI cable with one of the Thunderbolt port only.

 

[Almur]

I can confirm you that you can add another monitor using a miniDisplayport - HDMI cable with one of the Thunderbolt port only.

How stable is it? I read somewhere that you have to reboot computer from time to time to get second monitor recognized. The other concern is whether GTX780 fit in 21.5 iMac...

 

[mhafeez]

How stable is it? I read somewhere that you have to reboot computer from time to time to get second monitor recognized. The other concern is whether GTX780 fit in 21.5 iMac...

So far so good. Mine does not need rebooting, just plug and play. The GTX780M can fit in your 21.5 iMac but a bit tight it as has the same size as the GTX680M and other MXM-B cards or you can refer the 1st post of this thread by MichaelDT.

 

[Almur]

I put a Dell Quadro K3000M card in a 2009 iMac with El Cap on it and it works great. Had to shave down the heatsink for 2 parts of the card being in a different location.

Do you have boot screen with Dell Quadro K3000M card?

 

[mhafeez]

Do you have boot screen with Dell Quadro K3000M card?

You will never have boot screen, no matter what graphic card you use unless it's modded with Mac EFI.

 

[Almur]

You will never have boot screen, no matter what graphic card you use unless it's modded with Mac EFI.

What about editing kexts? I have a boot screen on my hackintosh running Lion.

 

[mhafeez]

What about editing kexts? I have a boot screen on my hackintosh running Lion.

Hackintoch is a different system, cannot be compared with iMac. Not sure about kext editing but what I know is it runs after booting.

 

[ryanhaver]

Hi guys,

unfortunatelly I have to point out that ATI R9 m290x 4GB does not work with 27" iMac mid 2011.

Just spent couple days trying to make it work without any luck. Screen does not turn on, no LCD backlight, computer boots up normally, I'm able to control it over TeamViewer, no graphic card is recognized.

I should have gone for the verified choice GTX 780.

I'll be a second voice here that confirms the newer AMD cards do not work. I have tried an AMD HD8970M which is essentially a re-branded R9 M290. There is no backlight and the display receives no signal whatsoever. External display sees something there, but reverts quickly to no signal detected.

I will be returning mine and hopefully be getting a GTX780M.

 

[ryanhaver]

I assume that because the GTX 880M is a re-branded GTX 780M with more memory and slightly higher clock speeds then it should work as well. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[bizzle]

I have read through this entire thread but perhaps I missed something, but do any of these cards work right in Windows?

 

[havokalien]

Do you have boot screen with Dell Quadro K3000M card?

No Apple logo screen and brightness adjustment does not work but a good cheap replacement card if yours goes bad and reflow does not work.

 

[Farthen]

My 2011 27" iMac 6970m 1gb graphics card just died on me (of course I am not eligible for the free exchange program anymore). Trying to reflow it myself didn't work (although it was my first attempt at it and I probably did not heat it up enough to not fry it) and now I am looking for a replacement card. Not having EFI support would make me cringe but I would be fine with that if it means I can save a few 100 bucks. The stock card is ridiculously expensive, I am not even considering that. It is cheaper to sell the broken one and get a new one than replace the GPU.

However I would at least want to have brightness controls. I don't want to ruin my eyes forever. What would be the best/cheapest option that allows me to control the brightness? Is it possible to put in even older cards that were built for the older iMacs? I would be fine with worse performance if it means that I can use the thing at all.

I would be fine with soldering EEPROM chips if that helps, anything beyond that is probably beyond my skills.

Can someone give me some advice?

On another note I am quite confused by my broken video card. It works perfectly fine in EFI mode, I can let it run for hours in recovery and AHT. But as soon as I boot OS X or Windows the screen shows artifacts and it panics/hangs a few seconds after that. I am just surprised by the flawless performance in the EFI mode which makes me think that the card can't be that fried?

 

[havokalien]

Ya thats is a normal failure and why reflowing will work if you heat it up. Like imagine thats safe mode not utilizing whats broken.

 

[mcking76]

I have a mid 2010 27" and want to upgrade from the 6770m to either a GTX 780m, 870m or 970m. I see a lot of success here with the 780m, but has anyone tried the other two, or see a reason why those would not work?