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

[RRPC]

Article on pc world say
Radeon Pro WX 4100, Radeon Pro WX 5100, and Radeon Pro WX 7100 will be based on its latest Polaris architecture and are aimed at professional users.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/309...-radeon-pro-wx-series-to-replace-firepro.html

So, fire pro cards are different.
And I I google Polaris architecture.
It's a more power efficient card.

Now the question is.
Do the architectural matter for the vbios ?
Do we need the firepro cards or can we also put in the new cards

Would like to know what card @Jforte got.
And other people have. Might be interesting, or maybe important to select the right card

It could be that it have been over looked,
But I was thinking that I got a good topic.
Of the 2 types of cards.

My qwestions is Basically. Is @Nick [D]vB bios compatible with the what card ?

It's important to choose the right card
And don't end up with a card that can't be used
That's why I want to know.

 

[danKeff]

It could be that it have been over looked,
But I was thinking that I got a good topic.
Of the 2 types of cards.

My qwestions is Basically. Is @Nick [D]vB bios compatible with the fire pro and the Radeon Pro card. Or only the firepro.

Reason why to ask is,
The fire pro ( 109-C95847-00C ) is more power hungry card.
while the Radeon pro ( 109-C769A1-00B ) drawing less power, and is a more capable and newer card In comparison to the FirePro.

It's important to choose the right card
And don't end up with a card that can't be used
That's why I want to know.

I am not sure but judging by posts earlier in this thread I have now seen people posting photos of WX7100 cards with both part numbers on and claiming that they work. Hard to know for sure if they are actually posting the photo of their own card or are just grabbing and re-using a photo from somewhere else but I have definitely seen people point to photos of cards that are working and seeing both part numbers.

Also DES on Ali seem to claim they are the same (they use the word universal). I specifically questioned why the advert text used the 00B part number but the photo showed the 00C part. They were also aware I was putting it in an iMac and were aware of this thread. Given they had been questioning me to make sure I was ordering the right card I would have expected them to tell me if they didn't think it would work. That doesn't mean it will work but my expectation currently is that both will work.

I am not even sure which I will receive but given the text shows the 00B part number that is the one I was expecting.

Obviously Nick, and many others, will know better than me though.

 

[nekton1]

Reading between the lines of Nick's recent post, I got the impression he is still working on the code for GPU roms. Although the OpenCore bootloader is a nice solution for native display brightness adjustment from the keyboard for the K1100M and K2100M, it would be great if he could get the same functionality into the rom.
Fingers crossed.

I am not sure but judging by posts earlier in this thread I have now seen people posting photos of WX7100 cards with both part numbers on and claiming that they work. Hard to know for sure if they are actually posting the photo of their own card or are just grabbing and re-using a photo from somewhere else but I have definitely seen people point to photos of cards that are working and seeing both part numbers.

Also DES on Ali seem to claim they are the same (they use the word universal). I specifically questioned why the advert text used the 00B part number but the photo showed the 00C part. They were also aware I was putting it in an iMac and were aware of this thread. Given they had been questioning me to make sure I was ordering the right card I would have expected them to tell me if they didn't think it would work. That doesn't mean it will work but my expectation currently is that both will work.

I am not even sure which I will receive but given the text shows the 00B part number that is the one I was expecting.

Obviously Nick, and many others, will know better than me though.

 

[danKeff]

I am not sure but judging by posts earlier in this thread I have now seen people posting photos of WX7100 cards with both part numbers on and claiming that they work. Hard to know for sure if they are actually posting the photo of their own card or are just grabbing and re-using a photo from somewhere else but I have definitely seen people point to photos of cards that are working and seeing both part numbers.

Also DES on Ali seem to claim they are the same (they use the word universal). I specifically questioned why the advert text used the 00B part number but the photo showed the 00C part. They were also aware I was putting it in an iMac and were aware of this thread. Given they had been questioning me to make sure I was ordering the right card I would have expected them to tell me if they didn't think it would work. That doesn't mean it will work but my expectation currently is that both will work.

I am not even sure which I will receive but given the text shows the 00B part number that is the one I was expecting.

Obviously Nick, and many others, will know better than me though.

Just checked Ali again and since I questioned the part number discrepancy with DES Global they seem to have updated their adverts to show the 00C part number in the advert text (matching the photos). I now can't find any cards on DES Global that are showing the 00B part number. I also went back to my order to confirm that I wasn't going mad and can confirm that my order/advert was definitely showing the 00B part number before.

I can see the 00B part on another store but they are charging about an extra $20 more.

Therefore I now expect to get a 00C part from DES. I presume me pointing out the discrepancy caused them to update their adverts. Will confirm once I receive it.

There was someone earlier in the thread who was selling their WX7100 card due to a medical emergency and I believe they already had it working in their iMac. The photo they showed in their bay advert was a 00C part.

 

[RRPC]

but I just noticed that the text description for the card is "109-C769A1-00B" but the item they are showing in the photo is "109-C95847-00C"

From what I have seen from others who have posted photos of their WX7100 cards that are working I believe that the "109-C95847-00C" is correct but I am not sure if both of these cards are the same or not?

That's good to know. If they both work. I want the 00B card. Of course

DES Global they seem to have updated their adverts to show the 00C part number in the advert text (matching the photos). I now can't find any cards on DES Global that are showing the 00B part number. I also went back to my order to confirm that I wasn't going mad and can confirm that my order/advert was definitely showing the 00B part number before.

Don't worry. I also have seen that DEs Global listed the cards as 00B, and the picture show 00C.
Your not insane.

 

[nekton1]

How to Boot Seamlessly using the OpenCore Bootloader

In the new 1.22 version of the OpenCore bootloader, step 10 "Change External to Builtin" seems to be missing. I cannot see External or Builtin anywhere in Misc.

Did something change? Or is it an oversight, because the published procedure no longer works for me with V1.22.

10. Click on Misc on the left. Change External to Builtin. Make sure Show Picker and PollAppleHotKeys are checked.

OK with High Sierra install but missing on El Capitan; working OK now.

 

[kanglinyao]

I installed 780M into my iMac, and flashed @Nick [D]vB bios. It worked, but in Catalina, I cannot make the second monitor working on either two of the thunderbolt ports. Any ideas? I forgot to mention the second monitor works in my BOOTCAMP Windows 10 on the iMac.

 

[danKeff]

That's good to know. If they both work. I want the 00B card. Of course

If what you are saying is correct (i.e. the 00B card being better/more modern) then my guess is that most of these places are shipping the 00C despite listing under both names. Are you sure that is true and is not just the way these companies have been using FirePro/Radeon Pro naming? Are they actually different? Probably worth confirming that the VBIOS does work on both if you are sure they are different. DES are claiming they are identical.

I honestly don't care. Either of them are a bit overkill for what I need in a 10 year old iMac. I just want to install Catalina with all the standard features working with a card that is likely to be future-proofed for future versions of MacOS. Thats really the only reason I chose WX7100 card. Given what I do I can't imagine really using the graphics card heavily. If I was doing something more intense then I would use a more recent machine anyway.

 

[RRPC]

If what you are saying is correct (i.e. the 00B card being better/more modern) then my guess is that most of these places are shipping the 00C despite listing under both names. Are you sure that is true and is not just the way these companies have been using FirePro/Radeon Pro naming? Are they actually different? Probably worth confirming that the VBIOS does work on both if you are sure they are different. DES are claiming they are identical.

I honestly don't care. Either of them are a bit overkill for what I need in a 10 year old iMac. I just want to install Catalina with all the standard features working with a card that is likely to be future-proofed for future versions of MacOS. Thats really the only reason I chose WX7100 card. Given what I do I can't imagine really using the graphics card heavily. If I was doing something more intense then I would use a more recent machine anyway.

Yes.
For what I have read, and said earlier.
here

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/post-28355059

The firepro is older.
The Radeon PRO is newer, and have a different architecture.

And use less power. (Watt)
Fire pro use 400wat
Radeon 140 watt.

Fire pro is a 28nm
And Radeon is 14nm

You can see the bench mark here between the 2 cards.

Radeon Pro WX 7100 vs FirePro W7100 [in 1 benchmark]

Comparing AMD Pro WX 7100 with AMD FirePro W7100: technical specs, games and benchmarks.

technical.city

user Pascal Baillargeau, linked to this card on Alie, that seems to be the the 109-C769A1-00B what can be seen in the picture, and description. if picture is real, it also show that i don't have the "X clamp"

I bought one in august 2019 at this shop:

Page Not Found - Aliexpress.com

Read with attention first post and others major posts to build a strategy, about the graphic card swap, hardware (and)/(or) software requirements.
Regards,

also, DES Global said to me this morning. they sell the 00D version.

it's really poking in the dark. because the part numbers ar not clear, but found out a petty sweet Tool to know what card you have.

Find unknown device information and drivers | Device Hunt

A PCIdatabase.com replacement to hunt out that unknown device information and drivers.

devicehunt.com

PCI 1002 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] 692B Tonga PRO GL [FirePro W7100]
1002 = vendor ID, AMD
692B = Device ID.

as you can see, 692B is the Fire pro.

PCI 1002 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] 67C0 Ellesmere [Radeon Pro WX 7100 Mobile]

if you want the Radeon PRO. you need the card with ID 67C0

here is the catch, this can only be seen in device manager in windows. so the seller need to be honest. and tell you the Device ID.
like so showen on the AMD website.

Knowledge Base Search

www.amd.com

 

[danKeff]

Yes.
For what I have read, and said earlier.
here

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/post-28355059

The firepro is older.
The Radeon PRO is newer, and have a different architecture.

And use less power. (Watt)
Fire pro use 400wat
Radeon 140 watt.

Fire pro is a 28nm
And Radeon is 14nm

You can see the bench mark here between the 2 cars.

Radeon Pro WX 7100 vs FirePro W7100 [in 1 benchmark]

Comparing AMD Pro WX 7100 with AMD FirePro W7100: technical specs, games and benchmarks.

technical.city

user Pascal Baillargeau, linked to this card on Alie, that seems to be the the 109-C769A1-00B what can be seen in the picture, and description. if picture is real, it also show that i don't have the "X clamp"



also, DES Global said to me this morning. they sell the 00D version.

it's really poking in the dark. because the part numbers ar not clear, but found out a petty sweet Tool to know what card you have.

Find unknown device information and drivers | Device Hunt

A PCIdatabase.com replacement to hunt out that unknown device information and drivers.

devicehunt.com

PCI 1002 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] 692B Tonga PRO GL [FirePro W7100]
1002 = vendor ID, AMD
692B = Device ID.

as you can see, 692B is the Fire pro.

PCI 1002 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] 67C0 Ellesmere [Radeon Pro WX 7100 Mobile]

if you want the Radeon PRO. you need the card with ID 67C0

here is the catch, this can only be seen in device manager in windows. so the seller need to be honest. and tell you the Device ID.
like so showen on the AMD website.

Knowledge Base Search

www.amd.com

So you think that the 109-C95847-00C card is the 692B device ID FirePro card and you think 109-C769A1-00B is the 67C0 device ID Radeon Pro card?

DES told you they are selling the 00D? You mean 00B? Thats interesting being as all of their currently advertised cards on AliExpress now have photos (and text) referring to 109-C95847-00C. I now have no idea which card will turn up in the post but I think I will go back and ask them.

Hopefully both cards work....

 

[Marsupio]

Reading between the lines of Nick's recent post, I got the impression he is still working on the code for GPU roms. Although the OpenCore bootloader is a nice solution for native display brightness adjustment from the keyboard for the K1100M and K2100M, it would be great if he could get the same functionality into the rom.
Fingers crossed.

Hi, any plausible hope to have brightness adjustment "built in" for K2100M in order to avoid OpenCore ? Nick ?

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Yes.
For what I have read, and said earlier.
here

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/post-28355059

The firepro is older.
The Radeon PRO is newer, and have a different architecture.

And use less power. (Watt)
Fire pro use 400wat
Radeon 140 watt.

Fire pro is a 28nm
And Radeon is 14nm

You can see the bench mark here between the 2 cards.

Radeon Pro WX 7100 vs FirePro W7100 [in 1 benchmark]

Comparing AMD Pro WX 7100 with AMD FirePro W7100: technical specs, games and benchmarks.

technical.city

user Pascal Baillargeau, linked to this card on Alie, that seems to be the the 109-C769A1-00B what can be seen in the picture, and description. if picture is real, it also show that i don't have the "X clamp"



also, DES Global said to me this morning. they sell the 00D version.

it's really poking in the dark. because the part numbers ar not clear, but found out a petty sweet Tool to know what card you have.

Find unknown device information and drivers | Device Hunt

A PCIdatabase.com replacement to hunt out that unknown device information and drivers.

devicehunt.com

PCI 1002 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] 692B Tonga PRO GL [FirePro W7100]
1002 = vendor ID, AMD
692B = Device ID.

as you can see, 692B is the Fire pro.

PCI 1002 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] 67C0 Ellesmere [Radeon Pro WX 7100 Mobile]

if you want the Radeon PRO. you need the card with ID 67C0

here is the catch, this can only be seen in device manager in windows. so the seller need to be honest. and tell you the Device ID.
like so showen on the AMD website.

Knowledge Base Search

www.amd.com

FirePro is W7100
Radeon Pro is WX7100

 

[RRPC]

So you think that the 109-C95847-00C card is the 692B device ID FirePro card and you think 109-C769A1-00B is the 67C0 device ID Radeon Pro card?

DES told you they are selling the 00D? You mean 00B? Thats interesting being as all of their currently advertised cards on AliExpress now have photos (and text) referring to 109-C95847-00C. I now have no idea which card will turn up in the post but I think I will go back and ask them.

Hopefully both cards work....

what they said.
what is FAILS.
00C and 00D are the older cards (if im right)
and 00B is the new card (just confirmed by Pascal)

so that means that the 00B (as i suspect)
is the new card.
merci beaucoup

 

[danKeff]

what they said.
what is FAILS.
00C and 00D are the older cards (if im right)
and 00B is the new card (just confirmed by Pascal)
View attachment 905593
View attachment 905594

so that means that the 00B (as i suspect)
is the new card.
merci beaucoup

Ok, interesting... I agree it seems that the 00B code is the Radeon Pro based on Pascal screenshot....

However..the benchmark you quote here:

You can see the bench mark here between the 2 cards.

Radeon Pro WX 7100 vs FirePro W7100 [in 1 benchmark]

Comparing AMD Pro WX 7100 with AMD FirePro W7100: technical specs, games and benchmarks.

technical.city

seems to be comparing WX7100 with W7100. All the cards on Ali are labelled as WX7100. I haven't seen any that are labelled W7100. It would seem a bit odd if the 2 part numbers that DES are claiming are identical are actually completely different chips on different architectures and one is actually WX7100 and the other is W7100. I haven't had any indication that these people aren't being truthful (others may have done though). Where are you getting the info that the 00C and 00D cards are the FirePro chip? When I search for those part numbers all I get is AliExpress adverts. I agree that some use the Fire naming and some use the Radeon naming but I couldn't find anywhere official that listed the 2 parts as having completely different chips. Could you post where you see that from googling?

Also, if they ship me a card that has a W7100 rather than a WX7100 then I would think it reasonable to send it back. Again, I find it strange that they are insisting via chat that these cards are identical if they really have completely different chips on them.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi, any plausible hope to have brightness adjustment "built in" for K2100M in order to avoid OpenCore ? Nick ?

If you search for Nick's own posts and read there I would say there is no hope to get this without the OpenCore. He even announced to publish new vBIOS versions for additional cards to get native brightness control based on the same OpenCore technology. I you want a plug & play solution search eBay for the "Apple 27" iMac A1312 2011 Graphics Card - Nvidia GTX 675MX 4GB RAM" card. We had a lengthly discussion about this offer recently.

 

[danKeff]

Ok, interesting... I agree it seems that the 00B code is the Radeon Pro based on Pascal screenshot....

However..the benchmark you quote here:



seems to be comparing WX7100 with W7100. All the cards on Ali are labelled as WX7100. I haven't seen any that are labelled W7100. It would seem a bit odd if the 2 part numbers that DES are claiming are identical are actually completely different chips on different architectures and one is actually WX7100 and the other is W7100. I haven't had any indication that these people aren't being truthful (others may have done though). Where are you getting the info that the 00C and 00D cards are the FirePro chip? When I search for those part numbers all I get is AliExpress adverts. I agree that some use the Fire naming and some use the Radeon naming but I couldn't find anywhere official that listed the 2 parts as having completely different chips. Could you post where you see that from googling?

Also, if they ship me a card that has a W7100 rather than a WX7100 then I would think it reasonable to send it back. Again, I find it strange that they are insisting via chat that these cards are identical if they really have completely different chips on them.

Also, if you look at the photos of the 109-C95847-00C cards they have "Ellesmere" written on them on the adjacent edge to where the part number is written. From google it seems Ellesmere is the code name for the WX7100 Radeon GPU.

 

[RRPC]

well @danKeff thats the confusing part of all.
i admit that i have overlooked the small Ellesmere Tekst 😇.

its true that DES global is a fair seller. and don't wan't you to buy the wrong card

 

[Ausdauersportler]

well @danKeff thats the confusing part of all. they Write. FIREPRO
but it might be the RADEONPRO.
i admit that i have overlooked the small Ellesmere Tekst 😇.

its true that DES global is a fair seller. and don't wan't you to buy the wrong card

Some of your recent conversation has been based on assumptions and misreadings - it will confuse all others when following the thread. Just a hint, we have the possibility to start private conversations, too. I would like to read a success story after getting a card from this supplier based on facts and experiences.
We are talking about the AMD Radeon Pro (Polaris) WX 4170 *OR* WX 7100 Mobile cards, only.

 

[RRPC]

Some of your recent conversation has been based on assumptions and misreadings - it will confuse all others when following the thread. Just a hint, we have the possibility to start private conversations, too. I would like to read a success story after getting a card from this supplier based on facts and experiences.
We are talking about the AMD Radeon Pro (Polaris) WX 4170 *OR* WX 7100 Mobile cards, only.

i'm sorry.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

i have install the os without autopatcher ... after reboot i go to the patcher and patch it for imac 12.2 without legancy .... after reboot i look into the patcher , this say legancy driver installed any one an idea?? @dosdude1 any idea?

Hi!

I spend Easter Monday on installing the latest official release of Catalina 10.15.4 using @dosdude1 latest patcher version 1.4.1

After creating two installers SD cards with and without auto patching enabled I installed it on my iMac late 2009 i7 test beast, iMac12,2 - using the version “auto patching disabled”.

Everything worked fine except that after installation and before patching the SD cards contents were defective and I had to rewrite the card. Post installation of patches in the second round worked, I had to deselect the legacy video patch as always.

The only weird thing right now is that I had to manually install this external "Fix WIFI Atheros Mojave" patch to make the WIFI with the stock old Atheros module working again. This is different from the 10.15.3 but similar to the latest experiences with the latest Mojave and @dosdude1 patcher on another 2010 model.

Happy installing!

 

[kral84]

Thank you for the test , i have 1 question and 1 problem... Now first have you after the first reboot of the install an black screen? My problem is my stock gpu card with legancy was broken, and i install the k1000m card and now i have the legancy patches I don't get the away ...autopatch is off
I mean, we just can't get the legancy patches away...once in the system and you lost..does not matter how many times we reinstall / overwrite the system.
thank you for your test on a Christian holiday....

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Just another guess: Have you ever upgraded the boot rom firmware to the latest version? To do this install High Sierra including the latest upgrades and patches from 2020. Then your system is ready to install Mojave or Catalina.
Check @dosdude1’s installation requirements for Catalina on machines natively supporting High Sierra.

 

[Marsupio]

If you search for Nick's own posts and read there I would say there is no hope to get this without the OpenCore. He even announced to publish new vBIOS versions for additional cards to get native brightness control based on the same OpenCore technology. I you want a plug & play solution search eBay for the "Apple 27" iMac A1312 2011 Graphics Card - Nvidia GTX 675MX 4GB RAM" card. We had a lengthly discussion about this offer recently.

Still not clear for me : if I buy his 675MX "plug n play" solution, what are the limitations if there are... Native brightness control included ? Bootscreen ? Target display ? In other words, what are the functions that will not work or be limited with the 675MX "plug n play" solution in comparison to a standard Apple configuration (except installing Catalina with DosDude...) ?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Still not clear for me : if I buy his 675MX "plug n play" solution, what are the limitations if there are... Native brightness control included ? Bootscreen ? Target display ? In other words, what are the functions that will not work or be limited with the 675MX "plug n play" solution in comparison to a standard Apple configuration (except installing Catalina with DosDude...) ?

Please ask the seller! I do not own such a card and cannot give you first hand experience.
If you do not want to install Mojave or Catalina why buying a new card at all?Check TDM support on Catalina or Mojave with Apple yourself.

 

[Marsupio]

Please ask the seller! I do not own such a card and cannot give you first hand experience.
If you do not want to install Mojave or Catalina why buying a new card at all?Check TDM support on Catalina or Mojave with Apple yourself.

Ok I was able to reconstruct the pieces of the puzzle Not an easy game to be honest (this topic is full of "hide and seek" game). For info, the "seller" is not answering me. Seems similar for some other guys here.

Even TDM support on Catalina/Mojave is not so well documented. From the tonality of your message, it seems that TDM on a 2011 iMac with Catalina upgrade (which is supposed not to be supported on this model without DosDude), that would not work... Was not able to verify that on the web. I tested TDM of a Catalina Macbook Pro on my High Sierra iMac 2011 : working ok. Now a compatible TDM iMac (meaning 2010-2014 iMacs) with Catalina (so restricted to 2012-2014 iMacs without DosDude), do not know if TDM is working ; not so easy to be documented as you can imagine.

Humm, found that afterwards : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250291997

And finally that : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592

"Target display mode requires macOS High Sierra or earlier. It does not work with macOS Mojave or later."