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

[yuica]

Wasted a long time,repeated disassembly and installation, bought the SOP clip because I couldn't use Linux to flash the bios, ,damaged the backlight wire of the display screen...

In fact, I didn't do much valuable work, but finally, k610m can display the system picture.
and yes, no native brightness control

I know that Nick's IMAC OpenCORE loader.dmg is designed for k1100m and k2100m, but can I try to see if it works for k610m?

I use balenaEtcher to flash it to sd-card and then what?
Boot with this SD card? It's just a black screen

 

[NOTNlCE]

Would the NVIDIA GTX 670 mxm work?
Imac 2009/2010.

I know theres currently no vbios = no boot screen, but it would be able to load native drivers??

its Kepler GK104 family..

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 Specs

NVIDIA GK104, 980 MHz, 1344 Cores, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 2048 MB GDDR5, 1502 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

While it might be possible, I would recommend sticking with a recommended GPU from page 1. If you are eager to find out, go ahead and test it out and let us know!

Wasted a long time,repeated disassembly and installation, bought the SOP clip because I couldn't use Linux to flash the bios, ,damaged the backlight wire of the display screen...

I use balenaEtcher to flash it to sd-card and then what?
Boot with this SD card? It's just a black screen

Yes - I am afraid this is the problem. You'll need Nick's VBIOS in order to see the GOP bootscreen for the OpenCore bootloader. Perhaps you could navigate it blindly or set up an autoboot on the config.plist to further your experiment? I am unsure as to how the custom VBIOS works alongside the OC config, but the OC DSDT just tells the iMac that its internal display is in fact, internal, allowing for brightness control with the custom modded kext. So it *could* work.

 

[snam11]

Wasted a long time,repeated disassembly and installation, bought the SOP clip because I couldn't use Linux to flash the bios, ,damaged the backlight wire of the display screen...

In fact, I didn't do much valuable work, but finally, k610m can display the system picture.
and yes, no native brightness control
View attachment 899872
I know that Nick's IMAC OpenCORE loader.dmg is designed for k1100m and k2100m, but can I try to see if it works for k610m?

I use balenaEtcher to flash it to sd-card and then what?
Boot with this SD card? It's just a black screen

out of curiosity, you flashed it with k1100m nick bios? or did you hex edited/modded it?
if you need web drivers to enable full acceleration,i suppose you use the default bios, don't you?

 

[yuica]

It's sad, I'm a newbie, I don't know how to,not even fully understood the readme of Nick's IMAC OpenCORE loader.dmg
[/QUOTE]
Yes - I am afraid this is the problem. You'll need Nick's VBIOS in order to see the GOP bootscreen for the OpenCore bootloader. Perhaps you could navigate it blindly or set up an autoboot on the config.plist to further your experiment? I am unsure as to how the custom VBIOS works alongside the OC config, but the OC DSDT just tells the iMac that its internal display is in fact, internal, allowing for brightness control with the custom modded kext. So it *could* work.
[/QUOTE]


I only found the hp version k610m. If I don't flash it, I can't use it. So I found it on the internet
I said it above,I've broken the backlight wire of the display screen... But it can output with miniDP. So when I wait for express delivery, I connect it to another display through minidp.

If I use k1100m BIOS (only reduce the frequency by KeplerBiosTweaker), I can also enter the OSX system,

but the line of graphics card is empty, not "Graphics NVIDA Quadro K1100M..." ,not "Graphics NVIDA Quadro K610M...",just nothing
and I can also enter Linux, but I can't flash BIOS back, I had to disassemble...
now I use the bios from internet

out of curiosity, you flashed it with k1100m nick bios? or did you hex edited/modded it?
if you need web drivers to enable full acceleration,i suppose you use the default bios, don't you?

I hope Nick can help me modify the BIOS of k610m one day just like that of k1100m k2100m

 

[snam11]

so if i'm not mistaken, you've flashed a plain k610m bios (hp), and the mac boots fine.
and with nvidia web drivers you have acceleration (but you're stuck to high sierra).

if you flash nick bios you get blank descriptin, but the card works fine with default osx drivers so you could upgrate up to catalina.

i'm asking because k610 are really cheap on the net... cheaper than k1100m

 

[yuica]

so if i'm not mistaken, you've flashed a plain k610m bios (hp), and the mac boots fine.
and with nvidia web drivers you have acceleration (but you're stuck to high sierra).
if you flash nick bios you get blank descriptin, but the card works fine with default osx drivers so you could upgrate up to catalina.
i'm asking because k610 are really cheap on the net... cheaper than k1100m

k610m is the cheapest 'new'-card,only a quarter of k1100m,
I didn't do a full test, There are some problems with the web driver,everything is slow, I have to switch back to the default. But I also have CUDA installed, I don't know if default is CUDA or the default?

I dont think nick bios is working properly, even if it can enter osx and linux.Both system can not identify it.

 

[snam11]

cuda is needed for rendering and stuff, the web drivers are just enough for acceleration on osx system. but you're stuck with high sierra because web drivers are not present on mohave and catalina...

 

[HighSierraCosworth]

Just an update, if I may

2011 21.5 inch, i5-2400S, K1100M. Stock High Sierra Install, and stock OpenCore settings, I've done absolutely nothing besides restoring the DMG to an SD card and sticking it into the iMacs SD card. Been working 100% flawlessly, its lovely to have brightness control back.

Also been playing some games on PopOS via SteamPlay (Proton). Its been rock solid. The computer just doesn't like unsupported MacOS versions, really.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Wasted a long time,repeated disassembly and installation, bought the SOP clip because I couldn't use Linux to flash the bios, ,damaged the backlight wire of the display screen...

In fact, I didn't do much valuable work, but finally, k610m can display the system picture.
and yes, no native brightness control

I know that Nick's IMAC OpenCORE loader.dmg is designed for k1100m and k2100m, but can I try to see if it works for k610m?

I use balenaEtcher to flash it to sd-card and then what?
Boot with this SD card? It's just a black screen

Come, on! You showed it could work. Install the hardware backlight module and your are pretty fine. I cannot estimate how much work the vBIOS mod will be but I would assume it is something to spend time on.

You may use the OpenCore - but for what reason? There are even cards with Nick's BIOS do not get the brightness control (K1000M, K2000M). Give it a try and report back

 

[nekton1]

Another data point, if I reset the NVRAM, at the next boot there is a flash of white text on black that is too fast to read. Then the gray Apple and boot progress bar are displayed as normal. But at the next normal boot, it is back to the black screen before the Finder login screen.
If I then press the Option key before power-up, I get a long black screen before the gray efi screen with bootable disks. Selecting a boot disk then displays the normal Apple boot screen with progress bar to the Finder log-in.
The display intensity keyboard keys do not work in any boot scenario.
Is this normal behavior for this 19 December Beta 1.2 boot rom?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Another data point, if I reset the NVRAM, at the next boot there is a flash of white text on black that is too fast to read. Then the gray Apple and boot progress bar are displayed as normal. But at the next normal boot, it is back to the black screen before the Finder login screen.
If I then press the Option key before power-up, I get a long black screen before the gray efi screen with bootable disks. Selecting a boot disk then displays the normal Apple boot screen with progress bar to the Finder log-in.
The display intensity keyboard keys do not work in any boot scenario.
Is this normal behavior for this 19 December Beta 1.2 boot rom?

Search in page 197 or the first page for Nick's OpenCore boot loader announcement - we were just talking for weeks now about getting back brightness control via software - there it is...

 

[nekton1]

I think this is the issue I am seeing

'When your iMac is using an SSD for example, the system boots quick enough to skip the entire EFI bootscreen. Since it is faster than the EFI bootscreen delay time "bug".'

At a normal boot without Option, I do see the efi progress bar for a second or so before the Finder log-in.

Another data point, if I reset the NVRAM, at the next boot there is a flash of white text on black that is too fast to read. Then the gray Apple and boot progress bar are displayed as normal. But at the next normal boot, it is back to the black screen before the Finder login screen.
If I then press the Option key before power-up, I get a long black screen before the gray efi screen with bootable disks. Selecting a boot disk then displays the normal Apple boot screen with progress bar to the Finder log-in.
The display intensity keyboard keys do not work in any boot scenario.
Is this normal behavior for this 19 December Beta 1.2 boot rom?

[automerge]1584645960[/automerge]
Thanks.

Search in page 197 or the first page for Nick's OpenCore boot loader announcement - we were just talking for weeks now about getting back brightness control via software - there it is...

 

[Profcrab]

Thank you everyone for your hard work and instructions in this thread. Using what I read here, I upgrade my 2011 27inch with a k2100m.

I used the CH341a programmer with a windows gui to flash the bios with Nick's rom file and it booted fine the first time.

I also swapped out the wifi card with an inexpensive BCM94360CD form Amazon (with the adapter) and the old HD with an SSD.

Thank you so much to this active community for making it possible for this old machine to run Catalina smoothly.

 

[nekton1]

I second these thanks. This community has given my old 2009 27 iMac a new lease on life and kept it out of landfill.

Thank you everyone for your hard work and instructions in this thread. Using what I read here, I upgrade my 2011 27inch with a k2100m.

I used the CH341a programmer with a windows gui to flash the bios with Nick's rom file and it booted fine the first time.

I also swapped out the wifi card with an inexpensive BCM94360CD form Amazon (with the adapter) and the old HD with an SSD.

Thank you so much to this active community for making it possible for this old machine to run Catalina smoothly.

 

[FlorisVN]

Would the NVIDIA GTX 670 mxm work?
Imac 2009/2010.

I know theres currently no vbios = no boot screen, but it would be able to load native drivers??

its Kepler GK104 family..

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 Specs

NVIDIA GK104, 980 MHz, 1344 Cores, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 2048 MB GDDR5, 1502 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

almost all nvidia kepler based video cards work within MacOS, as far as I know.
Keep in mind you will need a Dell/Alienware card/vbios for the highest succes rate !

and yes indeed there is currently no efi vbios mod bootscreen available for that model.
only for kepler based 7xx series and quadro variants atm, on Nvidia side..

 

[nikey22]

@Jumme_Cph
I believe the GTX 670M is a Fermi 2.0 (GF114) based GPU;
However, the GTX 670MX is a Kepler (GK104) based GPU.
Which one do you have?

 

[nathansz]

what kind of bit do people use for grinding the heat sink?

 

[nekton1]

??

 

[highvoltage12v]

Hmm—but only for one boot. Next boot is same black scren until Finder
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Seems to work fine if press Option before Power to get to efi boot screen. That's OK b/c now easy to selet boot drive.

Yes EFI boot screen works, it's usually a keyboard compatibility issue. You can also hold the letter 'T' for Target disk mode. As long as the cards title says "Nick [D]VB in it the flash was successful.

??View attachment 900009

Please use Balina Etcher to restore.

 

[AnguzYoung]

Hi everyone,

I'm asking especially in context of games because just faced some problems with Mafia II for ex.:
everything was fine with 6770, but now with K2100m (which is twice more powerful) it has a problem with shadows flickering, and it feels like fps could be better...

Is there a possibility if some application do not recognise NVidia drivers or amount of VM properly?
Maybe I should install web driver for quadro K2100m to improve acceleration?

Thanks in advance!

 

[snam11]

dunno if it helps, but:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/discover/116695/mafia-2-issue-weird-environmental-lighting-texture-flickering-based-on-perspective/

 

[xanderon]

@Nick [D]vB how far away is a Coreboot solution for a i.e. 770M?
brightness control and target display mode would be awesome to have

best regards your biggest fan

 

[nikey22]

@xanderon
If you have a chance, boot into a linux_usb environment and try brightness control there via a ubuntu GUI for example. Can you report back to us if it works on the 7xxM series?
Thanks.

 

[xanderon]

my iMac is still standing around open and I'm waiting for a BT extension cable. as soon as everything is closed up I will boot an ubuntu USB will report back. hopefully in the next 2-3 Weeks

 

[Kieran Roberts]

Hello again,

Ive recently installed the k1100m in my iMac 2011 27inch the other day and have been using it fine for the last couple of days with no boot screen, I’m happy with this and don’t need the boot screen however I read that a NVRAM reset may fix this. This morning I decided to do a NVRAM reset, now will automatically boot into my Windows 10 partition if I don’t hold down the option key and choose My MAC OSX Partition, Also the Windows 10 partition doesn’t show up in that boot selection screen

What have I done wrong now and how do I fix that hahaha

cheers