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

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
NOTNlCE said:
Your best bet is to flash the AMD GOP ROM rather than the BETA4 ROMs. These ROMs are "best of both worlds" as they give both boot picker AND native backlight control using the OpenCore boot disk. I strongly recommend preparing your OpenCore USB ahead of time and enabling screen sharing on your macOS partition so that you can remote in and correctly change the OpenCore USB to your startup disk. Remember that the AMD config.plist needs to be unzipped and renamed as it is not the default!
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@NOTNlCE Thank you I have made my OpenCore boot disk / catalina loader as it seemed to call it when i had it burned to the usb and have everything ready, I am going to flash the Bios from windows 7 and remote into do that with my mini in windows too.

From there i should be hopefully boot to OS X and then make open core the boot loader

I have already prepared it with the AMD config.plist and renamed it to config.plist
After the flash am i understanding i'll need to have OS X boot and wait till it gets to the desktop to assign the opencore to be default??

is there a way to make opencore install to the EFI on the main OS X hard drive? or is it more complicated then that, and i'll just need to leave the SD card plugged in all the time to boot from?

thanks
 
Hi guys,

I am about to purchase a WX4170 out of eBay but the models shown are without a Bios chip.
I am fine with soldering resistors and Bios chips.
However where can I find more about where to put the resistor, its value and which model of Bios chip I should purchase please?

Thanks!
 
Hello!
iMac 21.5-inch (Mid 2011) Core i5, 12 gb, NVIDIA Quadro K2100M by Nick[D]vB (FPS:38), macOS 10.13.6. for now, without OpenCore...
questions: 1. choosing macOS for this hardware based on performance (and the fact that I like the dark theme)) 2. do I need to reinstall OpenCore after updating the macOS
thank you all!
 
IMREK said:
Hello!
iMac 21.5-inch (Mid 2011) Core i5, 12 gb, NVIDIA Quadro K2100M by Nick[D]vB (FPS:38), macOS 10.13.6. for now, without OpenCore...
questions: 1. choosing macOS for this hardware based on performance (and the fact that I like the dark theme)) 2. do I need to reinstall OpenCore after updating the macOS
thank you all!
Click to expand...
You should have OpenCore in use to get the backlight control. Do this first using a USB stick or a SD card.
Then create a new APFS container and install Catalina. After installation follow the guide on page 1 and post 1 to install additional patches to avoid black screen on boot and getting sleep back. Please just follow the posts @highvoltage12v made...
 
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sparky720John said:
is there a way to make opencore install to the EFI on the main OS X hard drive? or is it more complicated then that, and i'll just need to leave the SD card plugged in all the time to boot from?

thanks
Click to expand...

Yes - you *will* need to boot back into macOS/OS X and use Screen Sharing or something similar to open System Preferences > Startup Disk > and make the change to your OpenCore bootloader, likely called "Catalina Loader."

Without OpenCore, you will not get a backlight or display on the internal screen, but once you reboot into the loader and then into macOS, everything will be good.

You will need to leave the SD card in and boot from it all the time. You can remove it once you are booted up, but I don't recommend that. It is currently not advised to install OpenCore on a non-removable drive.
 
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Hi, I've been looking around for a suitable card for this upgrade and obviously I've checked the list on page 1. I've come across a HP 4GB PCA Radeon Pro Wx 4150 Mobile Graphics card - would this be too different from the WX4170 to work properly in the iMac upgrade?
 
Rendell001 said:
Hi, I've been looking around for a suitable card for this upgrade and obviously I've checked the list on page 1. I've come across a HP 4GB PCA Radeon Pro Wx 4150 Mobile Graphics card - would this be too different from the WX4170 to work properly in the iMac upgrade?
Click to expand...
Take a look at post one on page one. These HP cards do not work.
 
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sparky720John said:
I must give a little credit to @nathansz I took the file and installed the bootcamp just like he said and that was painless it installed just fine.

I will take your advice as well and use the windows 10 if needed, or once I'm all flashed and setup i may need to swap to windows 10

Thanks again for the help.
[automerge]1589926275[/automerge]
@RRPC & @Nick [D]vB

I am just about to flash my new WX7100 I have a question and if anyone else is able to answer please feel free,

When nick posted the AMD Beta4 with all the rom bios the names represent i believe the real cards that i I'm not mistaken apple refers to? is the 560x thru 580 refs to the WX7100 and the WX4150 see the first image

or should i flash using the GOP from AMD in second image,

Im just wondering if the AMD Beta4 is updated Rom for both cards and the names were just changed? just wanted to check before flashing, and not sure we have any information on the first post referencing other names so I didn't want to flash the wrong one.


Thanks Guys again for the help,

I am almost to the point of installing and flashing, and will keep you posted, as well as if all is successful, i will be sure to give you my seller info i purchased from, as he confirmed before even shipping i was getting the card with XX serial to match the ones we saw Nick [D]vB used first.
Click to expand...


Dear friend, tell me how can I download these BIOS versions for 580? I want to try flashing my RX480 with this BIOS and is there any data that needs to be entered in the AMD config.plist
 
Ausdauersportler said:
You installed the "legacy video patch" ? How is the performance of your display, now? Sluggish?

This was definitely not the way to solve this particular problem with 10.15.4. Reinstall Catalina from your USB boot stick after paying a visit to the first post on the first page and the Catalina section. The real solution needs a patched kernel extension to be installed additionally on your iMac.
Click to expand...

Many thank´s for the info, I´ll read some more and do it the right way. About sluggish...I have to check some more, but I think you are right about that....thank´s. EDITED...Yes sluggish, and the Imac 21,5" running hot with the GTX765m, to poor cooling. I have to stick with HS and orginal AMD.card.
 
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Mr.McNick said:
Dear friend, tell me how can I download these BIOS versions for 580? I want to try flashing my RX480 with this BIOS and is there any data that needs to be entered in the AMD config.plist
Click to expand...
The only versions that have been able to be used are the ones listed on the page 1 of this thread. if you are using an AMD WX4150 or WX7100 then the files will be part of the OpenCore loader files and in the EFI directory the config file needed to boot.


Im actually new to all of this myself, and have had to read, a lot of the posts and search through to find all the answers besides making a few posts, if you search back in the posts the openCore information is on page 197 and post #4,921 it also talks in that post about the AMD GOP and the catalina loader.

The AMD Beta 4 only covers a few RX cards but not the 480,

We will need a bit more info on your GPU that you have to determine what bios you'll need to flash your card, and point you into the right direction, the wrong info will only make things worse, If you can provide the model make and some possible pictures of your card once you've gone over the info in the first post we can try to give you the best advice,
 
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Hello,

Speaking of Firmware GOP.

I tested Nvidia Mod firmware with GOP, I only have the screen that lights up in Windows just at the end, did I miss something?

Good day.
 
I am aware flashing from Windows is the easy part,

I have been having one heck of a time just trying to get win7 installed on this 2011 iMac 27" before I install the new graphic card, and even with trying Jowaju's win7 winclone image I still hit a wall with the system not wanting to play nice with win7

so I decided i'll just go with win10

has anyone actually been able to remote into a win10 install on the bootcamp side and make the flash process work? or am i now flying into the field alone and hoping i don't break anything?

getting a bios chip flasher is starting to look a whole lot easier LOL although Im not sure i'd have patience for that.

any insight to this would be great, I got my thermal paste and am tweaking the last of the win 10 install to the system and have the OpenCore flash setup and ready to try and install the card then boot into bootcamp and flash from windows.

any last minute tips or advice may help, I'm going to be remoteing in from my mac mini so i'll need team viewer or something to go from the mac to the bootcamp and see things, or if i setup bootcamp to auto login will i see the desktop? Im guessing not till after the bios is flashed?

Well thank you again everyone for the advice, tips and help you are amazing everyone of you that helps.
 
rc3105 said:
Have you tried the linux sd card method? Super simple...
Click to expand...
I was looking at that, I have that SD created too, Im just not sure on all the commands that need to be typed and if i screw up a command it messes up the who bios.

I like the ATI/AMD windows flash tool but if i was able to get a clearer understanding of the commands needed and how to get to each directory and to point the right rom file and backup things i may use the linux SD method
 
there's only 3 commands that really matter

back up original bios - doesn't hurt anything if it doesn't work

turn of bios protection - doesn't hurt anything if it doesn't work

write new bios - don't turn power off while it's busy and you're fine
 
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sparky720John said:
I am aware flashing from Windows is the easy part,

I have been having one heck of a time just trying to get win7 installed on this 2011 iMac 27" before I install the new graphic card, and even with trying Jowaju's win7 winclone image I still hit a wall with the system not wanting to play nice with win7

so I decided i'll just go with win10

has anyone actually been able to remote into a win10 install on the bootcamp side and make the flash process work? or am i now flying into the field alone and hoping i don't break anything?

getting a bios chip flasher is starting to look a whole lot easier LOL although Im not sure i'd have patience for that.

any insight to this would be great, I got my thermal paste and am tweaking the last of the win 10 install to the system and have the OpenCore flash setup and ready to try and install the card then boot into bootcamp and flash from windows.

any last minute tips or advice may help, I'm going to be remoteing in from my mac mini so i'll need team viewer or something to go from the mac to the bootcamp and see things, or if i setup bootcamp to auto login will i see the desktop? Im guessing not till after the bios is flashed?

Well thank you again everyone for the advice, tips and help you are amazing everyone of you that helps.
Click to expand...

you may or may not see the windows desktop eventually but I wouldn't count on it

I flashed my card in windows 10 through TeamViewer no problem

I made sure TeamViewer was installed with unattended access and set to start at login, made sure windows was set to autologin and set reFind to boot to windows
 
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