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

[rc3105]

so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread
hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb.

It seems St. Nick is running a few days late this year, 🎅
or maybe a few weeks early, depending on where you live…

Quadro roms attached, for the following cards:

K1000M, K1100M, K2000M, & K2100M

Thanks a million guys! Worked great for a K1100 in my late 2009 27" i7-2.8

 

[passatgt]

Not sure if this is common knowledge or not, and slightly off-topic, but if you have an iMac with a broken motherboard for example, but a working screen and power supply, you can still use it as an external display with this adapter:

View attachment 898403
View attachment 898404

Here is an adapter for the 2011 iMac: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32846310124.html
Looks like this works with 12V, so its possible to use the built-in power supply. Also it has sound output, so i guess one could connect the built-in speakers too.

 

[Eesa Cal]

so this seller has this 675mx no bios update works with catalina problem is price anyone know of the best alternative with boot screen even if no boot screen as long as theres a firmware update i just need it fast for final cut with metal support anyone have the best suggest ?

Apple 27" iMac A1312 2011 Graphics Card - Nvidia GTX 675MX 4GB RAM | eBay

Nvidia GTX 675MX video card with 4GB RAM. for Apple iMac 12,2 27" A1312 Mid 2011 model only. (Apple part numbers 661-5968 /661-5969).

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[Roy Rijpma]

so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread
hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb.

I couldn't stand it to use fckin windows to flash the cards and so I prepared this ~350mb drive

I created a Linux Live USB (based on grml.org) Thumb Drive with nvflash_linux and Nicks Bioses preloaded. and its booting by itself so you can work blind with a new unpatched nvidia card plugged in. Also, its starting a ssh daemon and using DHCP to get an IP so you can remote login

You are amazing. thx.. i have made a usb drive (4Gb) in fat32.. i dont know what you mean with GPU+fat32. but works.

Not sure if this is common knowledge or not, and slightly off-topic, but if you have an iMac with a broken motherboard for example, but a working screen and power supply, you can still use it as an external display with this adapter:

View attachment 898403
View attachment 898404

if the mac is non working. this is a great UP cycle. perhaps put a mac-mini in side or some sort.
can you add us with a link to this board ?
oeps never mind .. i over looked this post

Here is an adapter for the 2011 iMac: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32846310124.html
Looks like this works with 12V, so its possible to use the built-in power supply. Also it has sound output, so i guess one could connect the built-in speakers too.

 

[jowaju]

I can confirm this error is from having SIP enabled. I tried the installer package on a stock 2010 27" iMac with High Sierra that had a failing GPU, and I got this error. Disabled SIP, ran the installer again and got a different error about Failing to Mount the bootcamp partition at the very end of the process. Wiped the drive with a clean load of High Sierra and re-ran the package installer, now BootCamp works great on that machine.

I received an error message during install. I've got the bootcamp partition and there are files in it. Here's the first error from the log file:

Mar 2 21:21:42 iMac installd[756]: ./postflight: 2020-03-02 21:21:42.778 winclone[908:27608] Updating Master Boot Record: 94.00
Mar 2 21:21:42 iMac installd[756]: ./postflight: 2020-03-02 21:21:42.778 winclone[908:27608] Updating MBR On Device
Mar 2 21:21:42 iMac installd[756]: ./postflight: 2020-03-02 21:21:42.780 winclone[908:27608] Starting sector is 945317888
Mar 2 21:21:42 iMac installd[756]: ./postflight: 2020-03-02 21:21:42.780 winclone[908:27608] updating MBR and partition info
Mar 2 21:21:43 iMac installd[756]: ./postflight: 2020-03-02 21:21:43.603 winclone[908:27549] Mounting /dev/disk0s4
Mar 2 21:21:43 iMac installd[756]: ./postflight: 2020-03-02 21:21:43.821 winclone[908:27549] Error updating Master Boot Record and BCD
Mar 2 21:21:43 iMac installd[756]: ./postflight: Failed restoring to /dev/disk0s4.

Appreciate any suggestion. It's a mid-2010 iMac 21.5 and I put in the Dell k1100m card. Running normally, just no boot screen. Running High Sierra currently 10.13.6.

Thanks!

 

[aro8366]

I have imac 2010 27" and I get no bootscren on 780m aswell as 765m, both flashed and 765m was confirmed working in 2011 model. What are the chances of bootscreen for this machine?

 

[nathansz]

hello all,

i’m wondering how the quadro cards perform in comparison to the radeon 6970 2GB in a 27” 2011 i7

i’ve been waiting for a 770 to be shipped from china since late january and starting to get the feeling it may never arrive

the quadro cards meanwhile seem to be inexpensive and readily available here in north america

while it’s not the machines main use i do like to play cities skylines from time to time and don’t want to take too much of a graphics performance hit

thanks for any opinions and wisdom

 

[nikey22]

have a look here for an interesting comparison:

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

While there is nothing wrong with putting a Quadro card (MXM-a) in a 27" imac, the general consensus seems to be go with the 765/770/780/880 (MXM-b) route as the power supply in the bigger computer will handle the power demands of these cards and as you can see in the link above, they are closer in performance to the HD 6970's.

 

[nathansz]

have a look here for an interesting comparison:

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

While there is nothing wrong with putting a Quadro card (MXM-a) in a 27" imac, the general consensus seems to be go with the 765/770/780/880 (MXM-b) route as the power supply in the bigger computer will handle the power demands of these cards and as you can see in the link above, they are closer in performance to the HD 6970's.

thanks for the response

i have looked at these benchmarks

it’s just tough for me picture what the real world difference will look like to me

 

[Roy Rijpma]

have a look here for an interesting comparison:

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

While there is nothing wrong with putting a Quadro card (MXM-a) in a 27" imac, the general consensus seems to be go with the 765/770/780/880 (MXM-b) route as the power supply in the bigger computer will handle the power demands of these cards and as you can see in the link above, they are closer in performance to the HD 6970's.

when i bought my imac 2011, they said.. " why are you buying a old IMAC?" i said, "because"

CPU oke.. the max i can put in is i7 2600 (and will do that in the near day's)
but GPU. my imac is faster/stronger as a nieuw imac. and thats crazzy to me.

 

[nikey22]

even a 980M will work, but you will be limited to MacOS Sierra I believe, because Catalina and Mojave don't have Maxwell drivers.
Also, in the next MacOS upgrade after Catalina, there is a good chance that Nvidia Kepler drivers will not be available. There would be no reason to, since Apple is using AMD GPUs now for their future iMacs.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

so this seller has this 675mx no bios update works with catalina problem is price anyone know of the best alternative with boot screen even if no boot screen as long as theres a firmware update i just need it fast for final cut with metal support anyone have the best suggest ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-27...s-Card-Nvidia-GTX-675MX-4GB-RAM-/133324452513

Read page #1 of this thread, there you find all cards listed with boot screen.

Talking about pricing: Fast video cards are rare and expensive and second hand in most cases. Today I had my first dying Quadro - the risk is always there. Some users here struggle when flashing cards, installing Catalina, etc.
From this point of view I cannot really see why exactly the price tag is a problem, especially when you make out of your mid 2011 a 2012 of Even better..

 

[nekton1]

So can somebody confirm—using Nick's roms, is a K1100M or a K2100M on a MXM-A card (the shorter card) be OK in a 27" late 2009 iMac? I can get these cards for under $40.

Of course, a little heatsink machining is necessary too.

 

[snam11]

@nekton1

So can somebody confirm—using Nick's roms, is a K1100M or a K2100M on a MXM-A card (the shorter card) be OK in a 27" late 2009 iMac? I can get these cards for under $40.

Of course, a little heatsink machining is necessary too.

could you please share the link for it?
i've got mine from aliexpress but also after flashing it doesn't work (error 43 on win, only vesa boot on mac), so i've already wasted money... getting one working for cheap is what i need atm, thanx

 

[ZenSurfeur]

hi

imac 27" mid 2011 i7 3,4Ghz, 24Go 1333Mhz, Hd6970m 2Go, ssd 480Go (high sierra + boot camp windows 8.1)

Dell quadro k2100m bought, waiting for p5-pro then i will flash it

Another SSD 600Go with fresh catalina is already ready to use

Back modded with home-made memory chip alu rads, I will put pics and howto

@nekton1 > be sure your k2100m is from dell

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I have imac 2010 27" and I get no bootscren on 780m aswell as 765m, both flashed and 765m was confirmed working in 2011 model. What are the chances of bootscreen for this machine?

Sorry, but according to page one of this thread and my own experiences at least the 780m has a boot screen and I am pretty sure other users will confirm that the 765m has it, too - if properly flashed. You have to press the option key to get it, my SSD boot is so fast that after turning on the LCD the boot screen stage has already passed. Currently there is a delay of some seconds during the boot phase between start and firing up of the display.

 

[rc3105]

So can somebody confirm—using Nick's roms, is a K1100M or a K2100M on a MXM-A card (the shorter card) be OK in a 27" late 2009 iMac? I can get these cards for under $40.

Of course, a little heatsink machining is necessary too.

I have a 27" 09 iMac and just replaced a dead 4850 with a K1100m and flashed Nicks rom. The heatsink didn't need any mods and it has boot screens. So far El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra and Catalina have all run fine.

edit: According to posts at the start of this thread the K1100m has been verified to support 4k via displayport, can't wait to get a 4k monitor & try that...

 

[Jumme_Cph]

But if you are curious, I have to test it still and update my app(and still waiting for some parts), but in theory the install would look like this:

1. Get a connector that fits into the infra port(JST GH 4PIN) or cut off the existing connector.
2. Get a 2 channel PWM module: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Channel-...le-Pulse-Frequency-Module-AU-NEW/302073175927
3. Since this module can only do serial communication, you also need a usb-serial module: https://www.ebay.com/itm/FT232RL-3-...ter-Module-for-Arduino-Mini-1pcs/383201566958
4. Based on the pinout(you can find it in post #4,659), wire up a micro usb connector to the infra connector and plug it in into the usb serial module.
5. From he serial module, connect VIN+ to 5V, VIN- to GND, and RXD to RXD(or TXD, i'm not sure, have to test it first)
6. Remove the PWM wire from the the 6 pin connector that connects to the LCD board. You don't need an extender or to cut the wire, because its possible to remove a single wire from the pcie connector, see example
7. Attach a new cable to the 6 pin connector(for example remove a wire from an old power supply or something) and solder the other end to the PWM module's PWM output
8. Set the frequency to 13khz and the duty cycle to 100% on the pwm module
9. Install my app and control the brightness

Using it with 5V should be fine, the only problem is that you cannot go below 20% brightness(but why would you want that anyway).

I have all the parts, but I guess the mod is useless if the app is not updated... what is status on that project..? 😅

 

[nathansz]

even a 980M will work, but you will be limited to MacOS Sierra I believe, because Catalina and Mojave don't have Maxwell drivers.
Also, in the next MacOS upgrade after Catalina, there is a good chance that Nvidia Kepler drivers will not be available. There would be no reason to, since Apple is using AMD GPUs now for their future iMacs.

yes i think requiring amd or intel graphics will be the next upgrade requirement (current being metal support)

i expect the next cutoff after that will be requiring a t2 chip

 

[passatgt]

I have all the parts, but I guess the mod is useless if the app is not updated... what is status on that project..? 😅

Sorry, i have lots of work now and i had some trouble setting it up myself even without software control. For some reason it doesn't work for me, maybe i have a broken PWM module... I ordered a new one to see if it makes any difference. If i got it to work, i can update the app.

 

[denizkoekden]

So I spent the whole day trying to get the K1100m (from HP ZBook) workin on my 27" iMac 2011. I flashed the ROM with flashrom and an CH3410A-USB Flash. I quadrouble checked the .rom and for sure, the BIOS has been correctly flashed but the GPU won't work. I get black screen and chime only. Only LED 1 and LED2 on the Logicboard turn on. After reseating the original GPU, everything works again. Oh and I ripped the HDD-Fan, do I need that? I replaced ODD and HDD with SSDs.

What could be the problem with my GPU? Did I get a broken GPU from eBay? Do I still have to mod the Bootrom? Because I just flashed the K1100m and installed it in my Stock iMac 27 2011.

 

[snam11]

So I spent the whole day trying to get the K1100m (from HP ZBook) workin on my 27" iMac 2011. I flashed the ROM with flashrom and an CH3410A-USB Flash. I quadrouble checked the .rom and for sure, the BIOS has been correctly flashed but the GPU won't work. I get black screen and chime only. Only LED 1 and LED2 on the Logicboard turn on. After reseating the original GPU, everything works again. Oh and I ripped the HDD-Fan, do I need that? I replaced ODD and HDD with SSDs.

What could be the problem with my GPU? Did I get a broken GPU from eBay? Do I still have to mod the Bootrom? Because I just flashed the K1100m and installed it in my Stock iMac 27 2011.

welcome to my world mate...
i've got a faulty k1100m too.
to rule out a flash fault, have a try with the flash using linux:

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread :D hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb. I couldn't stand it to use fckin windows to flash the cards and so I prepared this ~350mb drive I created a Linux Live USB...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[jowaju]

Sorry, i have lots of work now and i had some trouble setting it up myself even without software control. For some reason it doesn't work for me, maybe i have a broken PWM module... I ordered a new one to see if it makes any difference. If i got it to work, i can update the app.

You said you updated the app to retain the brightness setting on reboot but I can’t get it to work. Any chance you could upload the precompuled binary so I could try it out? Thanks!

 

[passatgt]

You said you updated the app to retain the brightness setting on reboot but I can’t get it to work. Any chance you could upload the precompuled binary so I could try it out? Thanks!

https://github.com/passatgt/imac-pwm-control/releases/tag/1.0.1

 

[jowaju]

https://github.com/passatgt/imac-pwm-control/releases/tag/1.0.1

Ahhh so it wasn’t just me doing something wrong, whew. This version does reset the brightness level on reboot, but it appears to be a fixed value between 50-60%, not the last value it was on before reboot. Tried on a 2010 iMac 21.5” and a 2010 iMac 27”, one Mojave, one Catalina.