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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.
Good evening, I've a iMac 27" mid 2011 and the graphics card is completely died. Can I change the card with a nVidia 660m or a 765m for Dell-Alienware? I don't care if I lose the startup screen, but I want to know if I can change the kexts after i put on the new card. The ATI 6970m is very expensive for me and that is the reason why I look for a nVidia card. I have much experience hackintosh if needed. I have found the 660m to 129 Euro and 765m to 117 euros. What would you recommend? Both cards are for DELL-Alienware.

Thanks in advance for any help and sorry for my english.
 
If I recall, the 2011 iMac currently has a video card replacement program for select devices. Perhaps look there first?
 
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Lost Heaven said:
It has been a while since I went through the process and I can't seem to remember how it went with Windows, but I'm under the impression that I uninstalled the previous GPU's drivers, booted with the new card to a black screen, logged in with Remote Desktop, to realise that Windows was installing nVidia's drivers through Windows Update. I later installed the latest ones downloaded from their website.
Similar to my advice to BaronVonBehemot, make sure you have Remote Desktop enabled, setup and test it before you change cards.
I believe you will not be able to run nVidia's driver setup without the card being installed, because it should hang, warning that "no compatible hardware has been found on this system", or something similar.
Also, depending on your card (and your luck or lack of it), you might need to modify a .inf file on your driver installer folder for the setup to run.



Are you considering selling your 5750 after you make the upgrade? I'm actually thinking of downgrading my 2011 iMac, as I ended up giving up on the 780M. I'm looking for a solution that will allow me to have the system running with an operational boot-screen and native brightness control, while avoiding the prone to failure AMD 6xxx series. If my reasoning is right, I guess my best option would be one of the AMD 5xxx series found on the previous generation 2010 iMacs.

Can anyone pitch in and confirm if my logic is correct? A GPU taken from a 2010 iMac should work natively on a 2011 one, right? The drivers are all there... am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Sry for late response ,I am sorry to disappoint you but I want to keep my old GPU just in case.
Thanks for all the tips
 
I was trying to find what is the problem on my Mac.

You guys have idea what is the status of attached screenshot?
From iMac, my 780m is detected, but slot information incorrect. (it should be on slot 3)

It's working perfectly on bootcamp@windows 10.

from iMac with nVidia driver manager
2017-01-12 7.56.07.png 2017-01-12 7.56.23.png
from windows, cuda-z status.
cudaz_windows.PNG
 
Hey all, if anybody is still following this thread I have a situation for you
I replaced the failed 6970m in my 27" iMac with a 770m and I can get it to boot and connect via Screen Sharing but I cannot get the display to work. The Nvidia Web Driver sends the computer into a boot loop with the screen connected. If i disconnect the display it will boot fine. Also with the display connected and using the OS X driver the 770m VBIOS shows as "preset 1.0.0." but when I disconnect the display it shows the correct VBIOS. I have tried just about everything I know to do and thought I would throw this out to see if I get any help.
 
Hello,

Anyone got their 6770m to sell?
I wanna upgrade from 4760m. A late 2009 modell
 
Upgraded to the 6970M on the 2010 27".

Also took the opportunity to clean the innards out. It sure was dusty. I did a quick test with Guild Wars 2 (looks great) and Hearthstone.

Geez the card generates a lot of heat. Thankfully there is iStat with fan control :)
 
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MichaelDT said:
Excellent news it is exactly as I suspected, you simply need an mxm a/b card that supports UEFI. I did loose my initial boot screen but once OSX loads the screen powers up. So initially I ordered the 675m but when I received that card it had BIOS only drivers...so I ordered a DELL/Alienware 680M off ebay. Only Trouble so far is it isn't recognizing my second display, but I'll tinker and we shall see if I can fix that.:)

Edit: So looking at my console logs it senses the second display then drops it, I'm thinking it is the driver.
Click to expand...


Hello im trying to change the grafic card of my iMac late 2011 but i dont know if i can use the mac thunderbolt display and if i can change my AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB with better models. can u confirm the model can i use to upgrade?
 
sudopibit said:
Hello im trying to change the grafic card of my iMac late 2011 but i dont know if i can use the mac thunderbolt display and if i can change my AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB with better models. can u confirm the model can i use to upgrade?
Click to expand...

Hello,

Do you think of selling your 6770m after upgraded?
 
mhafeez said:
Received the GTX980M today and installed it on my iMac 27" 2011. Had to do some mod on the heatsink coz the capacitors are much bigger than the GTX780M. Sadly it only works on external display, not the main iMac display. Any ideas how to enable the main iMac display guys?


View attachment 683218 View attachment 683219
Click to expand...

mhafeez Did you ever got your internal screen working with the 980m? I am thinking of going this route too.
 
prodigyman said:
mhafeez Did you ever got your internal screen working with the 980m? I am thinking of going this route too.
Click to expand...

Sorry prodigyman due to insufficient of time I'm still haven't got the chance to do the research or fresh installs on my iMac but I'm still using the gtx980m with my external monitor for my works. I'll let you know soon.
 
mhafeez said:
Sorry prodigyman due to insufficient of time I'm still haven't got the chance to do the research or fresh installs on my iMac but I'm still using the gtx980m with my external monitor for my works. I'll let you know soon.
Click to expand...

No worries, let me know how it goes when you can. Thank you.
 
hi, good to hear there alot of guy having problem with imac 2011's VGA.

i need to replace my imac vga (it's mid 2011), so if i bought a hd6670m then replace with tool, is it ok ? and work fine like before ?
 
TheChemist said:
Upgraded to the 6970M on the 2010 27".

Also took the opportunity to clean the innards out. It sure was dusty. I did a quick test with Guild Wars 2 (looks great) and Hearthstone.

Geez the card generates a lot of heat. Thankfully there is iStat with fan control :)
Click to expand...


Hi!

Is an awesome new!
I´m still waiting for the 3pipe heatsink. How much heat can I spect from the 6970M?
I´m thinking in replace the 6770m ofr the 6970m, but in the 2pipe heatsink some vram chips will remain exposed butI´m afraid to break the card.

Any advice?

Congratulations!
 
FrankGumeta said:
Hi!

Is an awesome new!
I´m still waiting for the 3pipe heatsink. How much heat can I spect from the 6970M?
I´m thinking in replace the 6770m ofr the 6970m, but in the 2pipe heatsink some vram chips will remain exposed butI´m afraid to break the card.

Any advice?

Congratulations!
Click to expand...

Hi! On regular usage the GPU heatsink hovers around 40-50C. When I launch GW2 (1920x1080 - settings on high), it'll climb to 71C if I don't set the fans to medium, brings it back down to low 60's.

On the bootcamp (Win10), I launched fur marks (sp) at 4k for 15 minutes. Fans on high, temperature never passed 68C.

I did buy thermal pads by Arctic (edit 1.0 mm) as well as the MX4 paste. I did not feel comfortable getting pads from a company I did not know.
 
TheChemist said:
Hi! On regular usage the GPU heatsink hovers around 40-50C. When I launch GW2 (1920x1080 - settings on high), it'll climb to 71C if I don't set the fans to medium, brings it back down to low 60's.

On the bootcamp (Win10), I launched fur marks (sp) at 4k for 15 minutes. Fans on high, temperature never passed 68C.

I did buy thermal pads by Arctic (edit 1.0 mm) as well as the MX4 paste. I did not feel comfortable getting pads from a company I did not know.
Click to expand...

I only bought Artic paste, where do I will need pads? D:
 
FrankGumeta said:
I only bought Artic paste, where do I will need pads? D:
Click to expand...

I purchased the pads from Arctic's website, but I believe you can find on eBay or Amazon. Mind you, Apple only uses paste, I opted to add pads on the advice of a fellow member.

I do hope this helps! I certainly understand the excitement of this upgrade and the trepidation of missing a step.
 
jasper9395 said:
Has anyone tried the GTX 765M or GTX 860M yet?
Click to expand...
Yes. I installed a 765m in my 2011 27-inch a couple of days ago. Works fine; no boot screen, no brightness control and no second monitor. I've enquired over at Netkas to see if anyone had an EFI ROM that I could flash it with. Still waiting so if anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.
upload_2017-3-9_20-52-34.png
 
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Hi, I signed up just to ask about upgrading my iMac 2011 21.5" GPU as well. I see that people succeded in using GTX 680M/GTX 780M except they have no boot screens. I was wondering if I stuck a 6970M from a 27" iMac 2011 if it would work with a boot screen working or not. I think I saw one guy did it but I'm not sure can anyone confirm? Also you guys are sure the powersupply is up to the task right?
 
I too have one of the 2011 imacs with a dead video card. Not looking for an upgrade, just a direct replacement. It's the Radeon 6970m 2gb. Problem is all the part numbers are the same. I was hoping the new replacement batch would have a different part number so we can differentiate between the ones that have problems and the ones that don't.
So far the cheapest replacements are used ones on ebay for $240-$300. Anywhere else for better pricing? Preferably new.

Edit - I found a repair service on ebay. You send them your card and they replace the GPU and send it back. 6 month warranty. They have 100% positive feedback. If they can't fix it they refund the money. $155. Anyone use one of these services?
 
Last edited:
Edit - I found a repair service on ebay. You send them your card and they replace the GPU and send it back. 6 month warranty. They have 100% positive feedback. If they can't fix it they refund the money. $155. Anyone use one of these services?[/QUOTE]

replace the GPU chip? in most of the cases , it is reballing the GPU to the card.and in most cases is will work, but it may not last too long.
 
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