perhaps you need a 2Gb vram bios.
Or something is incompatible with your model I dont know.
search for more info for roms on first wiki page.
Also gives shortcut links to the roms within this wiki post..
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
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iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade
- Thread starter MichaelDT
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perhaps you need a 2Gb vram bios.
Or something is incompatible with your model I dont know.
search for more info for roms on first wiki page.
Also gives shortcut links to the roms within this wiki post..
I finally took the plunge 
Everything went quite smooth, no nasty surprises!
Everything went quite smooth, no nasty surprises!
Hello everybody! So I have decided to upgrade my mid 2011 21.5” i5 2,7GHz AMD Radeon 6770M 512MB. Currently setup with 32Gb RAM and 500GB SSD running High Sierra (10.13.6). I read every single post of this long thread in a process that took some time but eventually allowed some previous problems to be solved before I even start. Thanks those involved in this trial error and fix.
Bought a i7-2600s CPU, a Quadro K2100m GPU and a CH341a programmer. From what I understand here’s what I should/could do in order to avoid errors:
- Install the new CPU (maybe startup the system to make sure everything is OK? I assume it’s a very safe procedure)
- Flash Nick’s VBIOS in the GPU using the CH341a programmer in my Linux laptop with Flashrom (there’s quite some information about this previously on this thread)
- Remove the rivets from GPU bracket using method in post #4201
- Install the new flashed GPU with some thermal paste on the usual places
- Startup the system again and make sure everything works in High Sierra
- Then install Catalina with Dosdude method
Missed anything? Thanks everybody for your help!
Bought a i7-2600s CPU, a Quadro K2100m GPU and a CH341a programmer. From what I understand here’s what I should/could do in order to avoid errors:
- Install the new CPU (maybe startup the system to make sure everything is OK? I assume it’s a very safe procedure)
- Flash Nick’s VBIOS in the GPU using the CH341a programmer in my Linux laptop with Flashrom (there’s quite some information about this previously on this thread)
- Remove the rivets from GPU bracket using method in post #4201
- Install the new flashed GPU with some thermal paste on the usual places
- Startup the system again and make sure everything works in High Sierra
- Then install Catalina with Dosdude method
Missed anything? Thanks everybody for your help!
@rodolfo.araujo
plan looks good. My best advice is don't put off anything to the next day once your start. You will lose small territorial maps in your head of where things go and how wires were tucked away. Start the job and get it done in ~1-2hours. I can now do it in 20 minutes after practice.
- Ground yourself
- Watch the HDD power connector, it looks exactly the same as the LCD DC power connector, don't confuse them, they are close by each other, and each others wires will reach their respective connectors.
- I used Flashrom version 1.1 in Ubuntu and did the flash.
- Once the rivets are out, leave the glued in bracket there. Once you remove the AMD card, the bracket it was held on to will just fall out. Use the K2100m bracket, they are identical.
- Apple used a screw-in-screw design to clamp the GPU and CPUs to their heatsinks. You'll see what I mean.
- Do the CPU and GPU same time. Use K5 for the memory chips of the video card and CPU thermal for the GPU.
Good Luck.
plan looks good. My best advice is don't put off anything to the next day once your start. You will lose small territorial maps in your head of where things go and how wires were tucked away. Start the job and get it done in ~1-2hours. I can now do it in 20 minutes after practice.
- Ground yourself
- Watch the HDD power connector, it looks exactly the same as the LCD DC power connector, don't confuse them, they are close by each other, and each others wires will reach their respective connectors.
- I used Flashrom version 1.1 in Ubuntu and did the flash.
- Once the rivets are out, leave the glued in bracket there. Once you remove the AMD card, the bracket it was held on to will just fall out. Use the K2100m bracket, they are identical.
- Apple used a screw-in-screw design to clamp the GPU and CPUs to their heatsinks. You'll see what I mean.
- Do the CPU and GPU same time. Use K5 for the memory chips of the video card and CPU thermal for the GPU.
Good Luck.
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Do not forget to install the missing sandy bridge KEXT to give your imac a well earned sleep once in a while. I still do not understand why these patches are not part of the Dosdude installer, but this has to be done manually after installing Catalina and before sending the system to sleep. Page One of this thread is the source to read. It contains the links you are looking for.
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boot menu is possible thx to Nick, using his custom vbios beta !
no brightness yet, but perhaps in the future.
there is progress in the work by using the opencore bootloader..
we will have brightness working someday i'm sure, just give it some time..
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Totally agree !
would be great if @dosdude1 can add these missing sandybridge kexts back inside mojave/catalina patcher for us 2011 iMac users !
Hope he perhaps adds them someday for us..
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sounds all good !
happy modding !
share your results..
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Do you know if the Nvidia Quadro Fx880m run 100%?
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I don't believe anyone has tested that particular card, but it seems to be based on a GT 330M. That would be quite slow and would NOT support Metal, so I would caution against using that card, especially when supported cards like the K1100M or similar are relatively inexpensive.
stick with known working cards, and stick with cards that have a EFI vbios rom is the best !
if you cannot find info about a card you wanna test, then you can test yourself and share your result here..
I have no experience with the Quadro Fx880m at all, but I always stay with known working cards.
This way I know it will work 100%, I would advise you do them same..
awaiting shipment of a 770m for my 27" 2011 imac
I'm all setup and good to go on the software end and I've taken the machine apart and put back together a few times so I'm good there
what I don't have is any power tools. would it be too difficult to file down the heatsink by hand?
thanks
I'm all setup and good to go on the software end and I've taken the machine apart and put back together a few times so I'm good there
what I don't have is any power tools. would it be too difficult to file down the heatsink by hand?
thanks
If you use the X-Bracket that comes with the 770M, there's a post a few pages back that shows you how to tap the rivets out rather than drill them, if that helps your situation at all. If you have a hand file, it would probably work just as well for the original X-bracket if you go that route.
so if i tap the rivets out i don’t have to worry about modding the heat sink?
i’ve looked at pictures but hard to tell without the pieces in hand
@high
just a bit of out topic question, do you get maximum CPU fan RPM when upgrading xeon L3426 to your imac 2010?
just a bit of out topic question, do you get maximum CPU fan RPM when upgrading xeon L3426 to your imac 2010?
Each different X-Clamp presents its own problems:
The NVIDIA X-Clamp fits the MXM card correctly, but the rivets are too small for the screws. If you remove the rivets by either drilling OR tapping them out, you're good.
The Radeon X-Clamp fits the screws perfectly, but it's a bit large for the NVIDIA cards and covers up and can damage resistors and a few capacitors on the back of the card. The areas around those need to be ground away in order for it to fit the NVIDIA card correctly.
I've always just drilled the NVIDIA card, seemed much easier to me - much less risk for me to screw up and hurt the GPU.
The heatsink mod needs to be done regardless of the X-Clamp you're doing - you could certainly do that by hand, but it might take some time. Apologies, I forgot the heatsink also needs grinding on the MXMb cards. I've only ever installed MXMa in mine.
Hi guys,
I was trying to patch my iMac 2011 27" with High Voltage guide to get sleep back on Catalina but I think I got impatient with Kext Utility and closed it a little too early while it was rebuilding the kernel cache.
I did reboot as you would guess and now I am greeted with a prohibited sign. But at the first restart I got a message in a console saying the Kernel cache was corrupted.
I am kind of stuck now as I can't even access the recovery partition for some reason. I can choose my Wi-Fi network but it then says "loading the recovery mode, it's going to take a while" but it never seems to make progress (I should be getting a loading bar from what I am aware of)
Any tip on how I could fix my issue.
What EFI loader are we using with the Dosdude patch? Is that the genuine EFI loader from Apple or a custom one?
Thanks!
I was trying to patch my iMac 2011 27" with High Voltage guide to get sleep back on Catalina but I think I got impatient with Kext Utility and closed it a little too early while it was rebuilding the kernel cache.
I did reboot as you would guess and now I am greeted with a prohibited sign. But at the first restart I got a message in a console saying the Kernel cache was corrupted.
I am kind of stuck now as I can't even access the recovery partition for some reason. I can choose my Wi-Fi network but it then says "loading the recovery mode, it's going to take a while" but it never seems to make progress (I should be getting a loading bar from what I am aware of)
Any tip on how I could fix my issue.
What EFI loader are we using with the Dosdude patch? Is that the genuine EFI loader from Apple or a custom one?
Thanks!
I solve my problem by creating a new installation disk and from a console I did run the "kextcache -i /" command. So problem solved.
And I believe the bootloader used on our iMac if using Catalina is named OpenCore. I'll try installing it on my MacPro5.1 and run Catalina very soon as it seems promising.
What you can do is reboot the Dosdude1 catalina patched installer, open the post install app and check the box in the corner "force rebuild cache", then apply the patches again. Don't click the graphics patch. The Dosdude1 installer doesn't contain any kind of bootloader at all, he's just using "no-compat-check" boot flag in Mac OS and also deleting the platform support.plist.
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It does, it gets close to some caps,.I checked just recently for curiosity, I wouldn't recommend it.
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My CPU RPM values are 1200RPM to 2600RPM. I never paid attention to what they were before the swap, so what are yours?
And Yes the fan gets audibly louder when set to 2600RPM.
BTW when booted with Open Core my CPU identifier fixes itself, "1.9 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon"
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Could anyone post their iMac12,2 DSDT with original Radeon 6970M for me to do some comparisons? Trying to see how external displays are handled. VBIOS and NVIDIA driver should handle more than 1 external...